War of The Valley Part II
by goldenpurple
Summary: Delya gets her wish and visits The Hooded One, but the meet stops short because of a horrible surprise. Meanwhile Khamille, 3 others and a baby rat creature are set to go through the Eastern Mountains without the other half of the group. Knowing that the scene is getting more dangerous, Khamille must guide her group and take on the problems she faces head on. Some Drago/OC
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Finally I'm back from my break of writing! I shouldn't have waited this long to write because of the _so many_ ideas forming in my head kept nagging me to write something. I was also out for awhile because I couldn't find another source to download my writing on. Since I have a lot of extra time on my hands for the next few days, let's continue on with Part II!**

"Ow! Ever try "handling with care"? I'm still tied up, ya know!" Delya grumbled as she was pushed onto the cold, blue-and-white checkered floor of T.H.O.'s lair . DJ Fist and MC Cobra lifted Delya's handcuffed arms and pulled them up. Drago, Hsi Wu, Blackfire, Monkey King, and Mumbo followed shortly after.

"Oh get used to it, whiner!" Hsi Wu growled as he was the last person to step out of the portal before it closed.

"If I wasn't tied up, I would beat you to a little pulp, ugly!" Delya roared. DJ forcefully pushed her back from kicking Hsi Wu's face.

"Oh, I'm so scared!" Hsi Wu doubled over to laugh. Delya opened her mouth to say something smart back when she felt a large tingle go up and down her spine.

"Oh!"

"Uncle Wu, that wouldn't be advisable to do what you're doing," Drago whispered through his teeth while nudging him.

"Oh please! She acts just like Jade!" he replied. Delya decided to ignore what the Sky demon had said. Instead, she was busy trying to collect what she had just felt.

_My six sense is back! That means that I'm back on Earth!_

"Jealous of our new digs?" DJ smirked.

"No. And since when did you start talking?" Delya raised her eyebrow.

"Since I decided to talk. What, is that a problem?" the late teen snorted as he opened the door to a dark room. Cobra turned on the large, florescent lightbulbs that were lined up on the ceiling.

"Yes. Yes it is," Delya stuck up her nose and walked inside.

"Why does it feel colder and colder in here?" Monkey King whined as he rubbed on his arms for warmth.

"You should know why, you simpleton," Blackfire replied as she walked past the prankster.

"Easy with the dis's!" Mumbo chuckled, even though he enjoyed what he had seen. Monkey King pouted. Delya gasped at the terrible sight that was left and right of her.

"I can't believe it! The people captured and frozen in the fabled "freeze machine"," Delya gaped. On the large shelves were only some of her friends and Teen Titans kept as trophies.

"Got that right, De-girl. After you meet with da boss, you gonna be standing up there with them," said a voice. The person speaking was none other than StrikeMaster Ice. The blonde-headed teenager was leaning on the open door to the other side of the room.

"If it isn't my man, StrikeMasta Ice!" DJ said, giving his friend a special handshake along with Cobra.

"Same here," Ice chuckled. "Watcha here fo'? Got the catch of the day?"

"Yeah, but she wanna talk to T.H.O. first," Cobra said, moving out of the for his friend to see for himself. The rest of the group followed suite.

"Figures. The kinda girl she is, I should have known she would do something like that," Ice said as he walked up to the demon. Delya broke free of Blackfire grasp and made a low growl.

"I swear, take any step closer and I'll kick your head off. My hands may still be tied up but my feet are still free, ya know," Delya threatened. Ice stood still.

"OK then," Ice said, turning to the door. "I'll show you the way."

"Thanks a lot, chump," Delya began to walk forward, but Drago put his arm in front of her.

"No. I'll take her," he said. Ice, along with everyone in the room, snickered at that.

"What? What's so funny?" the son of Shendu glared at his former teammate.

"What, just because you still think De is yo' girl don't mean you gotta protect her like that," Ice laughed.

"That's not why I volunteered," Drago breathed 2 columns of smoke through his nose.

"Then why is it, dear nephew?" Hsi Wu mocked.

"If Delilah does have a chance to escape, your moves won't be enough to stop her. You know I'm the only person in this room whose skills can match hers," Drago explained. Everyone backed away from the 2 demons.

"Alright then. She's all yours kiddo," Monkey King turned to leave.

"Good luck with her," Blackfire turned to follow.

"I'm going to my room," Ice said as his friends followed.

"Good luck with each other, Light-Bulb and Lizard Boy!" DJ sneered before disappearing into the darkness.

"Rrrrr. About to rip his lip off. I liked him better when he wasn't talking," Delya glared as his exit.

"Whatever...," Drago grumbled. He pushed Delya out of the way with his shoulder, almost knocking her to the ground.

"I'm standing here," Delya whispered as she sped up her walking to catch up to the dragon. It wasn't hard to tell that the teasing had gotten to him too.

"So how long will it be before I actually get to see The Hooded One, seeing that he has a very large headquarters?" Delya asked quietly.

"You'll see," Drago replied gruffly, walking up a long line of steps. Delya sighed, looking down at the somewhat dirty floor.

_I don't know what else to do_, Delya sadly thought as he walked on, _I know what I did wrong that hurt him but does he have to be _so_ mad about it?_

Drago had reached up the stairs and opened the door. There was a long hallway before them.

"This way," Drago unwillingly opened the door for his ex-friend. Delya took a step up the stairs and looked up before stopping again. She squinted her purple eyes carefully at the sight of a silver glint.

"What's taking you so long? You said you wanted to see The Hooded One, so get your butt up here!" Drago snapped. Delya ignored him and walked up the stairs.

"Is that...?" Delya walked faster and snapped the handcuffs off her wrist. Drago slowly back away from her.

"Is what's in your jacket what I suspect it to be?" Delya glared. She moved her hands forward, but Drago grabbed both of her hands.

"I didn't say you could touch me," he hissed.

"I'm going to and there is nothing you can do about it!" Delya growled as she pulled away. Drago saw where this was going and grabbed her left arm with both hands. He threw her into the wall, which made her hips hurt and her arm hurt.

"Why are we fighting? All I want to know is what's in your pocket. If you just bring it out, maybe we can talk about it. I don't know what your problem is!" Delya glared as she threw 3 thunderbolts at Drago. He jumped, blocked with a fireball of his own, and bent backwards, his nose barely touching the electricity. The stray thunderbolt hit the light on the ceiling, making the light flicker.

"What the problem is is you! You are the problem-_my_ problem! All I wanted to do was just to make a world for the both of us, but because of you, your stupid aunt and my father, the world would have still been ours!" Drago shouted as he threw an intense fireball at Delya. She lay her stomach on the floor, letting it hit the wall before getting up again. There she decided to stop fighting for a little while.

"You won't let that go? I don't think you understand, but I don't want to rule the world anymore! After seeing what things like that has done to my family, I have lost my ambition for it! I didn't want to see the people I care about follow the same path too! We could have ignored everything that has happened previously between us but _you still cannot_ let that go! Now you've pushed me too far! And I almost forgot; don't **ever** call me by my real name again!" Delya grunted. Drago ran forward, only to be slammed on his back by Delya

"Ow," Drago growled. Delya quickly bent over, reaching into Drago's black jacket pocket. What she pulled was pulled out was a knife with a black, leather sheath with Chinese writing on it.

"I knew it! Uncle's old dragon hunting knife. Why did you take it when you're not allowed to in the first place? It's against your kind," Delya whispered. A lone tear from her eye fell on the cold floor.

Before Drago could think up the words to speak, the door down the long hallway opened, somehow making the light turn on fully again. A dark figure was at the door, taking 2 steps forward.

"Well, what do we have here?" the figure's voice said. "2 children fighting, isn't that right?"

Drago had gotten up from the floor and started to dust himself off. The dark figure stepped closer into the light, revealing it to be The Hooded One. This made Delya take her fighting stance unintentionally.

"No reason to fight. You declared to everyone that wanted to see me, so here I am," T.H.O. pointed to Delya with his bony fingers.

"Well, get in there, Dimples! Hope you survive!" Drago pushed her forward. This made "Dimples" take 2 steps back.

"Oh don't worry. I won't bite," the so seemed "wizard" exclaimed. Cautiously, Delya boldly walked forward, only to stop at the door frame. She half turned to Drago.

"I hope I never see you again," Delya hissed, slamming the door behind her.

"You're quite the aggressive demon, Delilah," T.H.O. smirked, sitting down on a what looked like a brown pillow. The Hooded One's room was big, but quite small due to a wooden table and with teacups filled with brown tea on both sides of it. There were incense sticks at each corner of the room, making it smell like a mixture between an apple and a strawberry.

"Tea?" Delya raised her eyebrow. "Really? I came here to talk, not to have a girl chat. And don't call me by my real name."

"Your real name is more formal. Anyways, drink the tea. You need to savor the strength," T.H.O. smirked.

"What? The strength so we can fight later?" Delya put her hands on her hips.

"No, no. You should sit down. I'm sure we can talk this out," he said. Delya felt The Hooded One smirking under his disguise. She sat down on the brown pillow opposite of the host.

"Take a sip. It should help you on your injuries from the past few days suffering of brutality."

"What're you trying to do? Making yourself seem smart by adding "big words" to your sentences?" Delya frowned. T.H.O. laughed.

"Wasn't it that a few days ago Kingdok had attacked you and your followers during the night?"

Because of the expression on Delya's face was unreadable, T.H.O. laughed a little harder. Delya sat still, not knowing what to do. She wasn't aware of her eyes and her hair turning ghost white.

"...Yes...Yes he did. My right arm feels a little sore from his doing," Delya winced. She picked up the cup and took a sip of the good-smelling tea. "

"Mhm. Feels like my skin is being replenished."

"The tea works from the inside out, replenished and cleaning out your body from all alien forces."

Delya looked at T.H.O. confused, but then remembered what she was here for. The demon girl put back on her serious face.

"Back to business! Why? Why are you doing this? Why are you attacking me, my friends, my aunt, The Valley? Do you have some sort of vendetta against it and the people who live there?" Delya asked in the politest way she could.

"First, I think we should cut to the chase here, shall we?" T.H.O. said as he finished his tea, drumming his fingers against each other.

"Hunh?"

T.H.O. sighed and did a facepalm. Without warning, he took off his hood, revealing himself to be a young woman with brown hair. Her eyes were brown and she had the same skin color. Delya gasped and held her mouth.

"I-I-I-I-I...," Delya stared to stutter. "It can't be!"

"I'm surprised after all these years you can recognize my face. Can you remember my name?" "She" smiled warmly. Delya shot up out of her seat and grabbed her throat and began to choke.

"I thought you were a dude!" Delya's eyes widened. She took a big gulp of tea to help her from her continuous coughing.

"That's what everyone still thinks," the young lady rolled her eyes.

"Raina? How are you alive? You died almost 14 years ago!" Delya almost yelled.

"Anything is possible, my sister."

"So you were The Hooded One the whole time? Why haven't you said anything? You knew about everything that was happening but kept quiet? You think this is a game?!" Delya slammed her fist on the table, making the tea in the tea cups jump. "I can't believe it; my younger sister was playing as The Hooded One the whole time! You think this is a **joke**?!"

"My, my. So many questions," Raina sneered. "My master has kept me alive after so many years. He has been taking me in, like a father."

"He?...The Locust. I remember. The Lord of the Locusts is your master! How could you, Rania? You know how Uncle Satanius forbade us to even breathe that name!"

"You hated that man! I'm surprised you're talking his word for it! It's not even true!" Raina slammed her fist against the table.

"I know that, but what he says _is_ true and The Locust taking over your mind...your very _being_ if I'm not mistaken. I'm only trying to be the bigger sister and help you before you do anything that could hurt you! After all these years of not interacting with my family, I couldn't stand it if you fell victim to the Demon Netherworld, or even death! Say, did Mother teach you how to cheat death?" Delya asked as she sat down.

"I was too young to be taught on how to cheat death! Besides, if I may recall she favored you more. You may have been the boss of me then, but you are _not_ the boss of me now!" Raina glared. Delya's eyes turned a deep blue as she wiped her eyes to prevent tears from falling.

"What happened that day when Atheia's kingdom fell?"

"Your Aunti-the one you trust the most didn't tell you?"

Delya slowly shook her head.

"She was the reason why you haven't seen me in awhile. She suspected me of killing the Princess when I wasn't and destroyed me by taking this scythe and splitting me in half. There. I have told you everything," Raina picked up her favorite weapon, her scythe, and held it up. Delya's heart skipped a beat.

"I know that's a lie. You tried to take Khamille away and raise her as her own!" Delya rose up again. "She said that herself. Aunti would never lie to me about that..."

"Tsk tsk tsk. Trusting someone that isn't even _related_ to you over your own family. Mother would be very disappointed to hear that."

"But she would be furious to find out that her youngest daughter works for the family's worst enemy! I'm surprised you even care about her when you complain that she favored me the most! You're selfish and I want you to stop this before it's too late!"

"I'm not stopping anything and there isn't a thing you can do about it!"

"I have my powers, ya know," Delya said, showing off her fire, thunder powers, and other light skills. "I'm still capable of stopping you."

"You have the brawns but I have the brains. See, before you even _decided_ of coming here to speak with me, I devised a plan. You have tasted the delicious tea you have been drinking, no? I made that tea and put poison in it; a poison so powerful it can take demons like you and myself down. If it wasn't for my master, The Locust you have been blaspheming about, I wouldn't know how to take you down myself."

"That's funny. The poisons that harm humans don't harm us," Delya smirked triumphantly. "Your plan to poison me was a fail."

"Oh, but I'm not done yet. The poison that I put in your tea was the only known poison to hurt you; a human's blood. Just a drop can fatally injure a demon as young as you," Raina smiled viciously from ear to ear.

Delya stared inside her teacup. Every drop of tea was gone.

"Where did you get that?!" Delya held her stomach and dropped to one knee. From inside her cloak, Raina pulled out a small vial filled with red blood.

"StrikeMaster Ice was willing enough to give me enough to fatally injure you."

_That explains why he was here earlier_, Delya angrily thought.

"You...You traitor!" she screamed. Her eyes and the streaks in her hair turned crimson red as she threw her empty teacup at her sister. Raina picked up her scythe and sliced the cup in half. It dropped the 2 halves dropped to the floor on each side of her.

"No, my sister. It is you who is the traitor. I want to take over the world for demons and criminals to run around on without being oppressed, starting with The Valley. When you were younger, you also wanted to rule the world too. Now you want to help the humans. This is _not_ Mother or Father would have wanted and would have perhaps even disowned you," Raina slammed the scythe of her scythe on the floor.

"**I don't have a father**!" Delya yelled at the top of her lungs. She grabbed the table and threw it over on the other side. Raina's teacup broke and the tea spilled on the floor. "Alonso was your father, but not mine. He was more like a stepfather to me. I don't even know who my father is. Mother is gone too. I don't know exactly what, but she's gone. You could almost say I was an orphan."

Delya struggled to ignore the arising pain in her stomach and fell on her side. She wiped her eyes from the tears that freely fell down her face.

"I don't know why my sister is turning against me just to free a stupid spirit," she wept. The Hooded One sadly sighed and took 2 steps closer.

"I did this because in a matter of a few days, it will be the full moon. By then will be the best chance to free The Locust. In order to do so, I must pertain a demoness and the Princess herself. Together, you and Princess Noriah will be the sacrifice and must give up your lives for him. After that, the war will be over. Once he is free, there is nothing you can do to stop him from taking over your mind."

"We will stop you! Aunti will find the antidote Anodroxcyn* to cure me and your plan will fail!" Delya raged.

"The Anodroxcyn antidote for human blood poisoning is just a legend. Even if it was true, I doubt she would ever find it," Raina put her chin up triumphantly. "Besides, I think my tea and your family line have something in common."

Before Raina could do anything, Delya nervously stood up. She held her stomach and threw up, almost throwing up everything she had eaten recently.

"Hey, why is the world turning black?" Delya asked, trying to stand up. While her sight was severed, Raina's was perfectly fine.

"The human blood has side effects before putting you to sleep permanently, such as blindness, losing the ability to walk, amnesia, throwing up, dizziness, insomnia, and a whole lot of other side effects before death. Don't even try about using your light powers either. They won't help against your condition," Raina laughed.

"I've got to go!" A horrified Delya got up and ran. Instead of bursting out through the door, she hit a wall.

"Ow!"

Not minding the short headache Delya had, she rubbed her head, blasted a hole in the wall, and escaped through. As Delya ran, she could hear Raina cackling in the background.

"Good luck out there without sight! Hope you survive!" Her younger sister taunted. Delya ignored her and kept running, bumping and tripping into any object coming her way.

_I must find Aunti_, Delya breathed in and out. Suddenly, she bumped into another wall-or at least what seemed like it and fell on her butt.

"Ugh! So many walls around here! Being blind is the worst!" Delya said, feeling on it as she stood up again. It felt like the muscles of chest of a man at least an inch or 2 taller than herself.

"What did I say about touching me?" A demon-like voice grabbed her wrist. Delya pulled away.

"Oh. Drago," Delya hissed. Delya could feel Drago glaring at her.

"What are you doing here? I thought you had left."

"Same for you."

"I have to go now. There's important business for me to do," Drago said in a nicer manner. He pushed Delya out the way, but she grabbed his jacket.

"Hey?! What gives?!" Drago yelled, swatting away Delya's hand. "I thought you didn't want to see me again."

"I said that only because you did," she croaked, choking back tears.

"Hey...Why isn't your eyes and those streaks in your hair changing color like usual?" Drago unintentionally touched Delya's hair. This time she kept silent about it.

"I thought you didn't want to see me anymore," a devious smile crept up Delya's face.

"I didn't say those words exactly!"

Nausea crept up Delya's throat. Not wanting Drago to have thrown up chunks all over him, she forced it down her throat again.

"The Hooded One poisoned me. Because of her, I am blind. I have to go," Delya turned around, but Drago softly placed his hand on her shoulder.

"He's a her?" Drago shook his head.

"Drago? Where are you? We're about to leave to start our plan!" Blackfire exclaimed from another floor below. Delya took a deep breath before turning around again.

"Long story. Drago, I know you're mad at me because I rejected but you've got to help me this _one time," _Delya begged him.

"And why should I help you?" Drago frowned deeply. Delya sighed.

"Yo dawg! Hurry up with what you're doing and get down here!" DJ's voice bellowed.

"Please. I'm actually _begging_ you for the 1st time. You've got to help me find Aunti and the others."

"And why should I? In fact, how are you poisoned if they only can hurt humans?"

"The one thing that can hurt demons like us is human blood. I accidentally drink it with my tea because of The Hooded One."

"Then we can use Anodroxcyn to cure you," Drago scratched his head.

"I don't know if the antidote is real or just a legend. I can find out if you take me to Aunti. Please...," Delya pleaded.

Before Drago could think of what to say next, the door far ahead of him burst open. DJ was leaning on the door frame, smiling ear to ear at the sight he saw.

"Yo, did you not here us calling you? We're about to leave for The Valley and you're hangin' out here with your girlfriend! You can get De-girl later! Right now, we gotta show to put on here!" DJ Fist cracked his knuckles. Drago moved Delya out the way

"First off, Delya and I aren't together. Second, I can't come with you . I have some business to attend to," Drago rubbed the bask of his head in shame.

"WHAT?!"

Without warning, Drago threw an intense fireball at the street-talking teenager. Instead of it burning him, DJ's skin is dark green, has scales, and wore the same clothing attire he did when he worked for Drago. When his hand closed, the fire was extinguished.

"Since I'll be absent, it is you who will take on the job of chasing Cobra around. You now have all the attributes of a dragon; dragon speed, fire, and strength," Drago explained. In DJ's hand was a small fire burning.

"A'ight then. This will do nicely," DJ nodded in approval. "See you all later!"

With that, he closed the door and dashed down the steps to meet the rest of the group.

"Fine, fine. I'll help, but you owe me in the future," Drago pointed at Delya's head. She eagerly nodded.

"Do you know where Aunti and the rest of them are?" Drago raised his eyebrow.

"I think they're in The Valley."

"And how do you expect us to get there?" Drago crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"We can use my necklace."

"Oh no! I don't think so! I saw what you did to your friends back in The Valley!" Delya

"There's only one way to get there and we aren't going to The Hooded One!" Delya stomped her foot on the floor. The 2 demons stared each other down.

"Alright! We'll use the stupid necklace!" Drago gave in. Delya smiled in victory as she took it off.

"You won't see how stupid it is when it transports us to The Valley," Delya replied, taking Drago's hand. He put his hand around hers as Delya grasped the necklace lightly.

"Together on the count of 3 ," she declared.

"Alright. 1...2...3!"

At "3", Delya's half-medallion turned glowed red and black. From the necklace instantly sprout out black and dark red dust, which quickly formed into an orb that consumed the 2 demons.

"What do I do?" Drago nervously whispered. Delya took her 2 of her fingers and closed Drago's eyelids.

"Just keep your eyes closed," she whispered. "We'll get there when we get there."

**A****/N: * = Don't ask me how I made the name "Anodroxcyn", I just made it up.**

**The next chapter will have scenes split back and forth between Khamille's and Jinx's team since they are split up in The Valley. The next chapter after that will go to Delya and Drago's story.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I've been thinking about this after I uploaded the 1st chapter, so hear me out. I couldn't put Khamille's part and add it with everyone else or that would make the chapter too long, thus taking a long time to upload the next chapter and so forth. Plus, it would make the 2nd chapter longer than the 1st and to me, it makes the story looking tacky.**

**Every chapter I do will be based on a day of what each team of people did that certain day, so you're going to have to wait a few more chapters before I can make the chapter you were expecting. Don't worry; this will only be a one-time thing, so hold your horses and read this chapter. First we start off with the 1st half of Khamille's team...**

**Disclaimer: Roque Ja (or as everyone calls him "Rock Jaw") belongs to Jeff Smith.**

"Look at it, Bartleby. It's the creation of new life," said Aisha. She and her animal best friend Bartleby looked forward with their eyes wide at Khamille. It was the about 10:00 in the morning and everyone was woken up by the sun that had just arisen over the mountains horizon. The young girl teen was sitting on a rock, giving bottle water to Hotspot and trying to make a sandwhich at the same time. Because of Aisha's siliness, Khamille looked and was very annoyed.

"Stop playing around, Aisha," she softly warned.

"It's my job to play around!" Aisha said aloud, kicking back on Bartleby's soft fur. "Right little buddy?"

Bartleby jumped in the air twice and onto Aisha's lap.

"See?"

"Yeah, but you do it a little too much," Jade added, taking a sip of her water.

"Correction. Too much," Hotspot chuckled.

"Bartleby doesn't count as a vote. Aisha, you have to leave him here and let him fend for his own," Khamille reasoned. Aisha quickly covered Bartleby's floppy ears with his hands.

"Shh! You wanna think we're abandoning the little guy?"

"We're aren't. It's parents-!"

"Hey! The "it" has a name. He's Bar-tle-by," Aisha defended.

"Fine. "Bartleby's" parents and the other rat creatures are looking for him. They might attack us and ruin the mission. Do you want that?" Hotspot pointed his finger to her. Aisha sadly nodded.

"You see? Sure, he's a good boy, but he doesn't belong with us. If The Hooded One had kidnapped you and decided to keep you as a pet, would _you_ like it?"

"...Well no because he would probably kill me," the words coming out of Aisha's mouth were barely heard.

"Then we all agree." Jade stood up to dust her pants off.

"Can we leave Bartleby after we cross the mountains?" the animal-lover tugged at Khamille's arm. She sighed heavily.

"Fine."

"Then I'm a-okay with it!" Aisha clapped her hands.

"Can we go now? We still have jewels to discover, adventure, the rest of our team and other stuff to find. If we keep moving, we could make across with mountains by nightfall without any trouble," Jade said as she stood on a tall rock, spying on the rocky terrains below.

"We're coming," Khamille called, packing up the food. She bumped into a large, furry figure.

"Hey! Bartleby, give that-!" she stared to say, but was stopped by 2 eyes and a large, drooling, sharp mouth.

"Hello small mammal," the eerie, raspy creature said. Khamille fell back on her butt and backed up.

"Not you 2 again!" she cried. It was the 2 Stupid Rat Creatures showing up once more to try and eat her.

"Looks like we have a full meal here," said the 2nd Rat Creature, pushing Jade, Aisha, Bartleby, and Hotspot near Khamille.

"Bad day," Jade gulped.

"Can't you just leave us alone this one time? I promise, we'll come back to you guys chasing us later," Hotspot grumbled.

"There is no later! We do this now!" hissed the blue rat creature. "Once we capture you, we will make a fine, meaty stew of you! Right comrade?"

The brown rat creature looked nervously at the ground, scuffling up dirt.

"Yes. We will make a very fine stew of them," he complained.

"Aw man! I was hoping you would make of us quiche. Dang it!" Aisha kicked a pebble at the ground. This lifted the brown rat creatures spirits.

"See?! Even the small mammals want to be quiche's!" the brown one pointed to them.

"What are you doing, Aisha? You're getting us killed!" Khamille nudged her friend in the ribs.

"Just follow my lead, everyone. While I talk to these bucket heads, you secretly and slowly get outta here," Aisha whispered back. Everyone nodded as Aisha stepped in front of everyone.

"I know what you're thinking; "How do we know what we want to be turned into?" That's simple. I tasted meat stew and quiche before. While both are good, quiche is better, Trust me; I'm happier being a pastry meal than a meat stew," Aisha explained in a silly way.

"What did I tell you, you fool of a comrade?! Quiche is better!"

"Meat stew!"

"Quiche!"

"Meat stew!"

"Quiche!"

As the 2 Stupid Rat Creatures argued, Aisha side-stepped, then slipped away from the carnivores.

"I can't believe I'm going to say this, but you're quick thinking saved us from being eaten!" Jade said as she ran. Aisha stopped.

"Aisha, c'mon! Don't wait to be eaten alive!" Hotspot stopped also, but he was ahead. The girl was looking frantic.

"Where's Bartleby?!" she exclaimed. She turned around to find Bartleby staring at the older rat creatures.

"Bartleby? Let's go, c'mon! You should be hanging around with them!" Aisha cupped her hands around her mouth. A soft hand was placed on her shoulder.

"Aisha, They're Bartleby's own kind. Maybe this was meant to be. We should leave," Khamille said, beginning to climb up a rocky hill. After what Khamille had said, Aisha's skin turned paler.

"But...," she sniffled. Jade grabbed Aisha's arm and grabbed her up ahead.

Meanwhile...

"I can't believe you at times!" the 2nd rat creature crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"And I can't believe YOU let them get away! The small mammals are gone now because of you! Great job, stupid!" the blue rat creature smacked his friend's head. "We've go to go after them!"

The rat creatures (including Bartleby) dropped their fighting and ran off in the direction of where the kids had ran off in. Luckily, they didn't have to wait too long, for the kids were at the top of the rocky cliff.

"RUN! Run for your life!" Khamille screamed. She ran and jumped across a ditch onto another large rock. She waited for Hotspot and Aisha to join her.

"Jade jump!" Khamille called out. Jade was the last person who was supposed to jump the cliff. Without even waiting, Jade leaped into the air.

"Hotspot, catch me!" she cried. Luckily, Jade did fall into Hotspot's arms.

"Thanks! You have nice muscles!" Jade complimented.

"Compliment me later! Right now, we have company!" he pointed to the 2 rat creatures attempting the jump the cliff.

"A ledge!" Jade pointed not too far ahead. Without even thinking of what could happen on a thin ledge, Aisha picked up Jade and was the first to run across the cliff.

"You should've known that the ledge is small!" Hotspot complained.

"At least there's an opening!" Jade pointed. Aisha pushed Jade up with Hotspot and Khamille right behind her.

"Yeah, but it's a dead end," Khamille added. Jade responded to her with a pitiful look.

"Let's use our powers now!" Hotspot began to power up, but Khamille grabbed his arm.

"No! If we use them, they'll know who we are!" she warned.

"So then what do you suggest?" Hotspot glared at her.

"Gotcha! You can't escape now, small mammals!" the 2nd Rat Creature popped his head up to scare them. This scared Khamille, making her fall on Hotspot.

"I can't look," Khamille covered her eyes.

From the top of the hill, Bartleby jumped down and landed on the carnivorous animals head.

"Bartleby! You saved us!" Aisha cheered. Everyone else didn't look as happy.

"At least, Bartleby saved us from being quiche," Jade softly chuckled. The celebration was stopped shortly as the brown rat creature slammed the baby's head onto the rocks.

"HEY!" Aisha screamed, making everyone cover their ears.

"Stupid rat baby!" the rat creature grumbled. The blue one showed up too.

"Knock the little traitors head in!" he ordered. Aisha's face turned beet red.

"Aisha, consider what you're doing before you strike," Hotspot warned, lifting Khamille off of him.

"Oh I am! I'm giving them a piece of my **mind**!" she retorted. She grabbed a rock, not even caring how heavy it is and smashed it in the 2nd rat creature's head, almost smashing his skull.

"YYYYOWCH!" he cried, seeing stars float around his head.

"Everyone, grab some rocks!" Aisha declared as she did

"Remind me never to make her mad," Jade noted.

"She almost never does," Khamille rolled her eyes, grabbing some small rocks. Aisha was way ahead of the, throwing a storm of flying rocks.

"GET OUTTA HERE, YOU RASCALS! AND DON'T SHOW YOUR FACE AROUND HERE ANYMORE!" Aisha screamed, throwing the last rock she had.

"Alright, alright! They're gone. You can stop," Hotspot said, dropping his rocks. Jade and Aisha did too.

"You are such a good fighter, Bartleby! I am very proud of you!" Aisha rubbed his head and fur. Bartleby rubbed against her legs.

"Bartleby did save us so we could keep him a little longer, but only until we can depend on ourselves with_out_ him," Khamille shrugged as she sat on a large rock, that was sitting on the edge of a cliff.

"And now we're lost because of the 2 Stupid Rat Creatures!" Hotspot kicked a rock off the cliff. "All this fighting made me hungry. Khamille, you have any food left?"

"Uhm, no. I accidentally dropped it when the rat creatures chased after us," she sheepishly said. "And I can't make any because I'm too tired. Sorry."

Jade and Aisha both face palmed.

"Now how do you expect us to eat?!" Hotspot threw his hands in the air.

"I'm sorry, alright? We can still find another way to get through before nightfall," Khamille stood up and brushed her pants. Suddenly, a large shadow towered over the group.

"At the moments, you are trespassing," said a deep voice.

"I'm sorry, but we need to pass through the Eastern Moun-AAAAHHHH!" Khamille screamed and jumped back. A large mountain lion, about 2 1/2 sizes bigger than Hotspot, was sitting behind him, smiling away.

"What do we have here? A rat creature cub?" the mountain lion got closer. Khamille got nervous and backed up into Aisha on accident.

"Hey, watch it!" she cried.

"Sorry. When it comes to me being nervous, I get pretty clumsy," Khamille chuckled.

"I saw what you did earlier to the rat creatures. It's going to take a lot more than _stones_ to chase me away," he smirked. "So are with them or him?"

"Excuse me?" Jade squeaked.

"I refuse to repeat myself," he stood straight up.

"Who's them?" Hotspot asked.

"Who's him?" Aisha glared at the mountain lion.

"Don't play the stupid with me, young ones. Are you with _them_, the old, retired magic consultant from the old kingdom and the dragons, or _him_, the master of the rat creatures, The Hooded One?!"

"Aunti isn't that old," Jade crossed her arms in front of her chest

"Why must we pick? There must be-!" Hotspot started to say, but the gigantic lion cut him off.

"No! Since The valley is divided into 2, everyone must choose a side!" the lion raised his voice.

"We dunno! We just arrived! What, there a war going on?" Jade's eyes widened.

"Not yet there is. What's your name anyway?" Khamille almost stuttered but Aisha slapped her hand on top of her mouth.

"His name is Rock Jaw and he owns the Eastern Mountains. I've never seen him before but I've heard many stories. One of them was that _he doesn't like rat creatures_," Aisha glared, grabbing Bartleby by his head and putting in behind her.

"I've also heard many stories about you too _Aisha_, one of them being that your parents are 7th level dream masters," the lion smiled. Everyone stared at Aisha in surprise.

"I though you were an orphan," Jade pointed out.

"Not exactly. My parents live in Atheia and don't always have the time to see me, so I stay in Barrelhaven Tavern. Sometimes I go and visit them and do some magic stuff."

"My name is Roque Ja, not Rock Jaw. Since you already know what I expect, I'm not going to waste any time telling you that if you want me to transport you to the other side of my mountains, you will have to be split up from the rat creature," the mountain lion explained.

"What?! There's no way you will split up my best friend!" Aisha scratched Bartleby's fur.

"Aisha, be reasonable. He's the only person-I mean animal that knows the Eastern Mountains like the back of his paw," Khamille said softly. Aisha glared at the ground and kicked at the dirt. She then looked back at Roque Ja.

"Fine, but do I get to see him later?"

"We'll see," Roque Ja hissed, turning around to walk on. Everyone except Aisha followed her.

"Humph," she huffed and did a raspberry behind his back. "I_ knew _I wouldn't like this guy."

"Are you sure you'll take us to the other side, Rock Jaw, or are you just messing with us?" Hotspot asked as he climbed a rocky hill. The lion didn't answer.

"I wouldn't if you would only _pick a side_."

"Do we have to pick sides?!" Aisha whined, catching up to Roque Ja. "There might be other sides we might want to consider."

"There are only 2. No more, no less," the lion replied.

"And why don't you pick a side? You're keep dogging on us about it," Jade glared.

"You are in no position to ask me a question, little one. The side I choose is the side I choose and not to tell."

"I think he's going to take us to The Hooded One for some type of reward or something," Jade leaned in to whisper to Khamille and Hotspot while she climbed

"Me too," Khamille nodded.

"I know what you're thinking and no, I won't take you to The Hooded One. I'd rather not work for the man who is the leader of the rat creatures, responsible for those delinquents running around. All he wants to do is reunite The valley once and for all. Back to the rat creatures! They are vermin and I despise them with everything I have! Every day, those monsters run amok through my mountains and ruin them. The thing that infuriates me the most is that they think they own the Eastern Mountains!"

"There goes the neighborhood," Jade rolled her eyes.

"The Valley people feel the same way!" Hotspot climbed further

"The Valley people? Don't make me laugh. The Valley people are the ones who started the war almost 14 years ago. The rat creatures wanted their territory, but The Valley people declined. But now they have lost control of their land. This war is now between the high and mighty dragons and those miserable vermin the rat creatures!"

"Oh, pipe down! If you hate the rat creatures so much, then join with the dragons and chase them away. It's that simple. I know I would!" explained Khamille as she climbed another rocky hill, but Hotspot elbowed her in the ribs sharply, making her stop.

"Hm. That would be a good idea, but one thing I hate worse than the vermin is the arrogant dragons! The Valley people think that the dragons created The Valley. So, one day their queen Mim went mad and her servants had to restrain her. Bur she resisted and they fought, creating the landscapes that formed the mountains and that created The Valley. The result was that Mim was turned into stone," Roque Ja recalled. "If you ask me, stories like that are for the stupid and insane."

"You said Mim was reduced to stone, right?" Hotspot turned around to say.

"HEY!" said a loud, but squeaky voice behind the gigantic big cat.

"Huh?"

"HERE KITTY KITTY KITTY!" said what looked like 3 possums.

"Who is that?!" Khamille's eyes widened.

"It appears to be rodents who can talk!" Jade's eyebrow was raised.

"This can be our chance to escape! Aisha said, climbing up the rock hill faster.

"HERE KITTY KIT-GRKKT!" one of the rodents was suddenly choked by the 2nd brown rat creature. The other 2 ran on the dirt trail towards Roque Ja.

"Go! Go!" they exclaimed. Hotspot and Khamille didn't need to be told twice to hurry up with the climbing.

"AHA! the hungry animal explained. "Now who's a quiche-eating old lady?!"

"A RAT CREATURE ON MY MOUNTAIN!" Roque Ja raged as he jumped to attack the dumb animal.

"AAAAAAIIIIIIIEEEEE!" he screamed. Scared for its life, the 2nd creature left go of the rodent and ran off with Roque Ja on its tail. Meanwhile, a raccoon cub was standing on top of a rock on the rocky hill

"Quick! Over here!" he exclaimed.

"You expect us to listen to a baby raccoon cub?" Hotspot skeptically asked.

"Well, it's better than nothing. At least Bartleby with us!" Aisha shouted, pulling Jade up the steep hill on a ledge.

Roque Ja chased the 2nd rat creature and jumped onto a bare tree log that looked like it was about to fall.

"I thought you said this was safe!" the 2nd one moaned.

"Safe for us, not for you!" said the raccoon. He ran under the rat creature, under Roque Ja and safely on the dusty trail. There he began to climb up the cliff.

"See you guys later!"

"I'll save you, my comrade!" called the 1st rat creature. Either in braveness or stupidity, the rat creature jumped on Roque Ja's back, clawing at it blindly. This did not phase the lion.

"You can stop now because we're about to FAAAAAALLLL!" he yelled as the log went down, crashing into the hard rocks below.

"Is everyone okay?" Khamille grunted, pulling Hotspot up onto the somewhat smallish ledge.

"I'm good.

"Okey-dokey Pokey!"

"That was awesome what you did back there! But why was that Stupid Rat Creature chasing you and saying something about a "quiche-eating old lady"?" Jade quoted.

"We will explain later. Right now we are glad we have saved you from Roque Ja, Princess Noriah Harvestar!" the raccoons and the triplet 'possums bowed down in front of Khamille. Aisha gasped.

"Heh, you guys are totally crazy! She is not the Princess! The Princess died almost 14 years ago!" Hotspot laughed. Inside, he felt like he was about to sweat.

"Mister, don't try and trick us from who she really is!" said one of the 'possums.

"What?"

"The birthmark on her forehead tells the whole story!" the raccoon pointed to the circled birthmark on her forehead.

"Phew! I sure am alright! I thought we would never get away from that jerky lion!" Aisha pretended to wipe our brow. "And we owe it all to...who are you guys?"

"My name's Roderick," the raccoon pointed his thumb to himself. "And these are my friends, the 'possum kids."

"Hey."

"Hi."

"What's up?"

"I'm Khamille, but as you know me now, I'm Noriah. But please, I'd rather be called "Khamille," Khamille did a small lady-like bow.

"You got it!"

"Guys, I'd love to stay and chat, but Roque Ja is coming up the cliff and he doesn't look too happy," Jade said as she looked down.

"Then let's get outta here!" Khamille shouted. She began to run, but Roderick was in the way.

"What's wrong?" she said.

"I can't leave without the others," Roderick shook his head.

"Hunh?"

"These are my friends! You can come out now!" the little raccoon yelled out to no one in particular.

From inside the cracks of the stacked-up rocks, almost a swarm full of different types of animals came out, all of them were about the size of Roderick.

"You've got to be kidding me," Hotspot face-palmed.

"Whoa!" Khamille fell back and scooted away from the babies.

"If you want to get across the Eastern Mountains, we can help you but you must help us too. Please lead us, Khamille!" Roderick begged her.

"Yes! Please lead us!" the animals cried out.

"Code red! Code blue! Code _something_! Roque Ja's coming up the cliff!" Aisha waved and arms and jumped up and down.

"There's no time! We've got to jump!" Khamille ordered.

"RRROOOOOAAAAARRRR!" Roque Ja slammed his paw on the ledge. Bartleby came out from in-between Khamille's legs and jumped off the cliff.

"Wait up Bartleby!" Aisha jumped off behind her animal best friend and the others right behind them.

"In here!" Khamille shouted. She was standing on a platform of a dark, rocky hole. She caught Roderick, the 3 'possum kids, a snake and almost dived in, followed by Jade, and a beaver with a turtle sitting on its back. With the last animal, Aisha cradled it and pushed everyone farther down, frantically trying to get away from Roque Ja's enormous paw trying to fit in there.

"GET IN THERE!" she panicked.

"We can't move any farther!" Jade said, who was sitting on Khamille's right. The angry lion finally pulled his paw out from smashing pebbles into smaller pebbles. He peered inside, only to be hit with a rock by Roderick.

"Bulls eye!"

"Yow!"

Roque Ja held his eye and rubbed it softly.

"He's still out there, isn't he?" Jade whimpered. The raccoon peeked around the stone corner to find the same yellow cat eye staring back.

"Yep."

"So much for making it outta here by nightfall," Khamille groaned.

"I can barely **breathe** in here because of this rat creature! Honestly Roderick, why did you have to take the cub with us?" the beaver complained.

"He's harmless."

"Harmless my tail! His so-called "comrades" ate our parents!"

"I said not to call me that," Khamille said as she started to sweat.

"You alright?" Hotspot waved his hand on himself to cool down. He did it to Khamille also. It looked like she was about to sleep.

"Yeah. I'm fine for now," she breathed in and out. "How are we going to get out if Rock Jaw's watching like a hawk?"

"Or a cat," said a snake across Khamille's direction.

"There is a tunnel here somewhere...," a yellow bird rubbed his head. This made the beaver mad.

"Keep yer beak shut! You wanna give away the escape route to the rat cub?!"

"Whoops!"

"Hey! Bartleby is my friend and I won't have you talk bad about him like that when I'm right here!" Aisha growled.

"Well, ex-_cuse _me but his family ate our families! The Prin-Khamille can relate to this too because it ate her parents a long time ago so she'll back me up! Did I also forget to mention how good it is to finally have you back after years of looking for you?" the beaver smiled from ear to ear.

"Wait. You're all orphans?" Aisha's expression softened a little

"If Aisha and Khamille say they're okay, then we back them up!" said one of the 'possum kids. The others stared down the stubborn beaver.

"That's nice to hear and all, but we gotta get out of here! How long will Rock Jaw wait for us to come out?" Jade wiped her sweaty forehead.

"I've heard he's done it for hours, even days," Aisha chimed in.

"We can't stay here for days!" Hotspot held his head. "Someone think up a plan quick! I can't stand small, enclosed spaces!"

"What about the tunnel?" the bird again suggested.

"No!"

"Yes and no argument! Now let's get down there!" Aisha ordered. The baby animals knew not to make Aisha any more mad then she already is so they stopped talking.

"OK, but the tunnel below here goes straight down and you might get hurt," said a pig that was stuck in the corner beside Jade.

"Tch! We've gotten hurt before and we don't have another choice, do we?" Jade asked. Everyone shook their heads quickly.

"To take precautions, everyone get in line! I'll be in the back!" Aisha said, grabbing Bartleby's little stub tail and pulling him to the back also.

"I call the front!" Hotspot crawled in front of the baby animals. He jumped down, and seconds later everyone heard his feet hit the ground.

"I'm alright!" he called. He snapped his fingers together, showing a little, but very bright fire. "I'm shedding some light so you guys and I can see!"

"What do you see there down there?" Aisha whispered.

"I see another tunnel and a bright light at the end. That must be the gateway to get out of the tunnel, but it's really long and some of the parts look very narrow!"

"OK, here's the plan. 2 by 2 and in a line, you guys will drop down there and get out the tunnel, since there is no room for more than 3 people. Let's do this!" Aisha hissed. The stubborn beaver watched as one by one the animals safely jumped in Hotspot's arms.

"I don't want those sharp _jaws_ behind me, so I'm going in behind the rat!"

"Then get in line!" Aisha barked. It didn't take too long for Khamille to be the last person waiting to go down the tunnel.

"What are you waiting for, Khamille? Jump already!" Jade called.

"Hold on! Hotspot don't move anywhere!"

Khamille took one last look of what was going on outside of the hole.

_Hm...Rock Jaw doesn't seem as attentive as he was before when he was hounding on our tails!_ Khamille thought. Roque Ja was licking his paw and wiping his slightly wounded eye, looking at the hole from time to time.

"Oh well. He'll never find us," she said to herself. With that, she jumped into the tunnel entrance and pummeled through. She was caught in her crush's arms, as she had hoped.

"I'm surprised you actually waited," she joked.

"I don't have _that_ bad of a temper," he rolled his eyes.

"Yeah. Right," Aisha laughed from the other side.

"Guys, come check this out!" exclaimed Jade. She, along with everyone else, were outside the tunnel, taking in fresh air. Khamille (with Hotspot behind her) flew outside to meet them. Aisha gasped.

"You're flying!" she pointed. Khamille happily shrugged.

"It couldn't hurt to fly around a little bit. What Rock Jaw doesn't know can't hurt him _or_ me," she replied.

"Look at this statue!"

Behind Khamille was a large statue that looked like a rat creature with teeth swayed to both sides of his mouth. To the right of it the bigger one was other smaller statues and idols.

"I remember looking at something like this...," Aisha rubbed her chin. "I think my parents called it "Queen Mim"."

"This statue is Queen Mim stuck in stone?!" Hotspot shrieked. Aisha shook her head.

"Of course not! This is just an ancient temple or some kind...or at least I think it is."

"Maybe this is the same thing that happened to another spiritual being...maybe the same being that's after Delya, Aunti, and I," Khamille said, slowly setting herself back down to Earth.

"Rock Jaw did say that they were both put in stone together," Hotspot looked at the other figures.

"It looks abandoned anyway," Jade looked at the smaller idol figures.

"Yeah, it might be just a plain old building after all," Aisha laughed. "Besides, how can it hurt us if it's in stone?"

"Shendu was stuck in stone plenty of times but I guess with the talismans he could hurt you somehow," Jade scratched her hair. "But before Drago was about to rule the world with his demon chi, Shendu had a pretty awesome lightning show that almost scared the skin off me."

"Shendu was in stone lots of times before?" Hotspot rubbed his head.

"Long story."

"We're getting besides the point. We should keep moving. Hey, where'd the kids go?" Khamille jumped up to float again.

"Big people, over here!" Roderick called as if he were on cue. He was on a rock, looking down on the view below.

"What? What's going on?" she flew over to the raccoon.

"Khamille, I just found out that we aren't out of danger just yet."

"We aren't?" Jade groaned.

"We aren't safe until we reach the tree line. There no one will be able to find us!" one of the triplet 'possum kids pointed out.

"What's that oversized cat up to anyway? Have we gotten out of his reach?" Aisha questioned the blue and yellow birds flapping in the sky.

"Rock Jaw's still watching over the entrance, but he's getting pretty suspicious up there," said the blue one.

"Less yapping, more traveling," Hotspot shook off all the bad news out.

"The cliff is pretty thin for you big people to walk on," the stubborn beaver huffed. "And this is the only way to get down from here."

"Then I guess flying is out the question," Khamille set herself on the ground once more.

"But what about the power gems? What about those?" Jade asked.

"Power hungry much?" Khamille giggled. Roderick gasped, covering his tiny paw to his mouth.

"Hey...Your birthmark. It's blinking!" Roderick declared. The little circle on her forehead slowly turned all kinds of colors.

"I think _this_ answers your question, Jade," Khamille poked at her unusual marking.

"Troops, move out!" Aisha declared, pointing at the exit.

"What she said!" Khamille added, walking behind Bartleby. As if they were actually soldiers they followed Aisha down. None of them were aware of a small grasshopper (which was standing between a space within a large avalanche of rocks) was watching them, twitching his antennas and quietly chirping.

"I have located them," it chirped.

**A/N: The other half will be shown soon. It might be very long and might take longer to update, so bare with me here!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Forgot about the disclaimer :/**

**Dis: I don't Teen Titans or JCA. I own my OC's, and at least half of this story. The other half belongs to the BONE comics.**

* * *

As the heroes and animals walked on forward, no one realized that Raina was looking down from a little hologram above. She was taking the most notice in Khamille's birthmark, which was lightly blinking.

"It looks like another gem will reveal itself soon," she said aloud, letting a creepy smile work its way ear-to-ear.

_"I've noticed. I think it's about time I claim my prizes_," The Locust croaked. _"I had almost forgotten about them."_

"Since you are getting stronger, you should take possession of them.

_"Excuse me?"_

"I meant spiritually. Every time a gem activates itself*, you can track and take them by using your swarm. You should do it for all of the jewels," Raina suggested. The Locust' little grasshoppers hopping and flying around did not bother Raina as much as before when she had joined The locust. She had gotten use to the insects.

_"Except for the Mystic Quartz! No matter how hard I try, I cannot penetrate the good shield of the dragons home."_

"That is true, but there is now way for the Princess to try and retrieve it either," Raina smirked.

_"I don't want this idea to fail as your other plans have_," The Locust retorted.

"If that plan doesn't work, then we can still use Delilah-."

_"**ENOUGH** ABOUT THE DEMONESS! You have weakened her, so what's the point of getting her back? She's going to be exterminated later on and that antidote for human blood poisoning "Anodroxcyn" is just a legend, so just be patient!"_ The Locust screeched.

"My lord, do not raise your voice! I have gone farther than any other person who has worked for you before! Ever! I can't turn back now!"

_"Yes, but at least their plans succeed and half of them sounding ridiculous!"_

"Think about it. The gems were original created and powered by the demon and dark chi wizards! If you had control over it, anyone who used it would feel your power. That will give you a chance to possess them. You are able to without my help anyway because day by day, you're getting stronger!" Raina cowered, bowing to nothing in particular at the ground.

_"You have a point there_," The Locust agreed. _"So what do you have in mind for freeing me? It _is_ soon, I hope."_

"I say The Blood Moon is the best time to free you. When my sister is at her time of demise in a few days, I'll hire someone to get her _and_ Khamille. Once 9 of the 10 gems are brought to me, I will start the ceremony by giving Delya and Khamille as a sacrifice to you. Then, you can take the gems powers, overcoming everyone's minds and getting the Mystic Quartz! By then, no one will be able to stop you," Raina thought out.

_"I like your style, but beware. If this plan shall fail, I will make _your_ death a rather_...painful one," The Locust' voice echoed through the small room, making The Hooded One shiver. With a strong gust of wind he, along with his insect pets left the room.

* * *

In the Eastern Mountains...

It was looking afternoon-ish and the group was halfway through the mountains. The talking minimized and Aisha was in front of everyone, like she was the general of the whole thing. Because of that everyone kept theirselves in line, even the stubborn beaver.

"This hill isn't so steep," Jade bragged, jumping from rock to rock.

"We haven't gotten to the steep part yet," Roderick did the same.

"What's that out there?" the yellow bird landed on her shoulder. 2 black columns of smoke raised high above the green trees.

"It's a forest fire!"

"If it was a forest fire, it would have spread. Besides, the smoke is too small to be a forest fire," Hotspot shielded the hot sun to protect his eyes.

"Is that anywhere near Colleen, Cody's, and Chrissie's houses?" Jade asked. Roderick shook his head.

"I don't know a Colleen, Cody and a Chrissie."

"We _have_ seen a large number leave Barrelhaven few minutes before another large group of people left. The 2nd group followed a blue-skinned guy, a monkey, girl with black hair, and some others I can't remember, recalled a triplet 'possum.

"Where did they go?" Hotspot got on his knees to meet face -to-face with the animal.

"We followed them a little before we found a lot of food spilled on the ground. That's how we tracked it to you guys."

Hotspot looked over at Khamille, who sheepishly smiled.

"At least they save us from Rock Jaw," she replied.

"The townspeople actually listened to Mumbo and Monkey King?!" Aisha shrieked, grabbing her ponytail. "Things like this make me want to rip my hair out!"

"We're not gonna let those hooligans make us slip our guard up!" Jade said, walking faster. "We'll find them sooner or later."

"Well, well, well. If it isn't for the little "_heroes_"," said a scratchy, familiar voice from behind.

"And the little, snotty baby animals who helped them," said another.

"Not these dummies!" Aisha moaned. It was the 2 Stupid Rat creatures again, up for Round 2.

"This time there is no mountain lion here to interrupt," the 2nd rat smiled eerily.

"Yes! Roque Ja is still keeping watch over your _mousey hole_ up above!' the blue animal's drool was flowing like a river out of his mouth.

"Wait, you ssaw uss esscape?" a green, but harmless snake quivered.

"We have you all in our grasp and ready to be eaten!" the hungry animals bared their teeth. "Any last words before we leave your bare bones here?"

Before anyone could think up an answer of smart remarks, a little swarm of locusts swarmed the rats, then some more joined them.

"Khamille, are you using the gems?" Aisha turned around. The Princess patted the pocket which she was holding them in.

"They're right here."

"Eeyuh! Get 'em off me!" the brown cried

"Don't let them get in your mouth!" his comrade cried out.

"LOOK OUT!" Roderick pointed behind Jade. It was the humongous king of the rat creatures himself, Kingdok.

"You're alive?" Hotspot eyes widened mostly in fear. "All of us did that combo attack on you!"

"Not totally! Look!" Khamille grabbed his arm. Kingdok's right arm was burned off. A burnt, black hole was where his arm socket originally was.

"So THERE you are!" screeched the king. The 2 rat creature recoiled in horror and fell on their bottoms, backing up into Khamille.

"I thought I was clumsy doing that!"

"Kingdok! Your Majesty!" the blue creature jumped.

"You're alive!" said the other.

"That's what he said!" Roderick pointed to a still afraid Hotspot.

"Y-Y-You're looking much better after the attack," the 1st rat creature trembled. "We were just about to get them for you!" The rat creature reached forward to grab Aisha by her leg, but Bartleby bit his finger.

"Yowch! Why you little-!"

"Remember what happened last time you said something like that?" Aisha growled, having 2 rocks in both hands. They didn't pay any attention to her, for they were trying to get away from Kingdok.

"YOU ARE **DESERTERS**! **DIE TRAITORS**!" Kingdok declared. With his large jaw, he pushed everyone off the loose cliff, everything go flying. Khamille was the first to land on the small ledge in front of the destroyed one. The brown rat creature landed on her head and Jade landed on her back.

"Get off me!" Khamille screamed, fighting the rat creature. As he had gotten off, Roderick's sharp claws scratched the side of her face.

"Sorry, Khamille! I didn't mean it!" he almost stuttered.

"It's just a little scratch," she calmed the animal down.

"Is everyone on the cliff?!" Jade cupped her hands around her mouth.

"Over there!" the blue robin pointed with his wing. Under the destroyed cliff was the stubborn beaver, the turtle, and one of the 3 'possums.

"Help us somebody!" they cried, clinging onto each other for dear life. The brown rat creature landed headfirst into a large rock.

"Ooh! That's got to leave a mark!" Jade chuckled.

"Someone has to save our sister!" the safe ones declared. Bartleby released himself from Aisha's grasp and jumped across the ditch.

"Bartleby, no!"

He jumped onto the small ledge and swiftly grabbed the beavers fur. With a gracious and courageous leap, he returned with harm from Kingdok's large bite that almost ended the baby's life.

"GET IN THERE!" Aisha shouted, pushing Bartleby into Jade.

"Watch out!" Kingdok's teeth is almost touching me!" Khamille gasped. She was only inches away from his mouth and stained teeth.

"Looks like someone needs a breath mint!" Jade held her nose.

"Or toothbrushes and a load of toothpaste!" Aisha did the same.

"Everyone don't move! Don't even breathe!" Aisha ordered.

"That's fine with me! His breath smells dead people anyway!" Roderick held his black nose.

"Where should we go?" Hotspot whispered to Khamille.

"There is nowhere to go!"

"Do something!" a blue garden snake yelped. Khamille frantically looked around, thinking of a quick and effective plan.

"Everyone, stop arguing and go that way! Go that way!" she pointed to the thin cliff behind the stupid rat creature.

"We can't got there!" Aisha pointed.

"You said to pick somewhere!"

Kingdok leaned in closer and took 2 more snaps, spit and little pieces of food flying everywhere.

"Kingdok forgot about flossing," the Princess muttered.

"I'm scared, little one!" the brown rat creature tapped Hotspot's shoulder.

"We _all_ are scared! Please, little one, save us all before we **killed** to death!" the stupid rat creature whimpered.

"Seriously?" a pig shook his head at their grammar.

"Why should we help you if you're going to eat us again?!" Jade growled.

"Because we won't?"

"Liars!" Roderick shrieked. Tears collected in his small eyes as he wiped them off.

"Mine too!"

"You just want to eat us too so there's not way we're helping you!" the stubborn beaver bared his buck teeth.

"**_SILENCE_**!" Kingdok yelled, kicking up small winds that almost blew everyone away.

"I'm not interested in your sacrifices! You will all **die **unless..."

"Unless what?" an opossum said what everyone wanted to say.

"Unless you tell me the whereabouts of that Eva, the demoness, and/or the Princess. Hurry up because I'm losing my patience!" the extra large rat creature barked. "If you can tell me their whereabouts, I will spare your lives."

Everyone except the 2 Stupid Rat creatures looked at Khamille, then back at Kingdok

"We don't know where any of them are at the moment, but if we did know there is absolutely no way we're telling you diddly squat!" Khamille yelled as loud as she could. This made Aisha and Bartleby snicker.

"She said diddly squat!" Aisha cracked up.

"We would sacrifice ourselves before giving you anyone!" Roderick squealed.

"AAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHH!" Kingdok grunted. In frustration, he pushed rocks above the large group, separating them.

"Get to the ledge! Get to the ledge!" Jade said, making her move there and bringing some animals with her.

"Get Roderick!" Hotspot pointed to a falling raccoon. As the other lower ledge collapsed, the blue rat creature grabbed a falling Roderick.

"I'LL GET YOU! YOU WON'T ESCAPE!" Kingdok called from behind the curb.

"Okay, okay. Is everyone alright?" Khamille wiped her sweaty brow. Aisha was busy counting everyone who was following with them.

"Where did Roderick go?" she asked plainly.

"I saw him falling off the cliff, but that's it."

"I haven't seen him in a while."

"Have you seen him?" the brown rat creature asked his comrade. He quickly shook his head.

"HEY!" Aisha glared. With a karate chop, Aisha smacked the neck of the carnivorous animal, making him spit out Roderick. He was full of saliva, making him look like a little drool monster.

"Are you alright?" a pig looked at his pitiful friend. Aisha picked him up and wiped the spit on her pants.

"What's wrong with you?!" she glared at him. Now the 2nd Stupid Rat creature smacked his friend.

"Ow!"

"If you keep attempting to eat these nice animals, they won't help us in return!"

"We aren't because you ate our parents!" the stubborn beaver emphasized.

"I can't help it! They all look like hors d'eurvres to me!" the blue rat creature whined.

"No one's eating no one, so get that straight! I'm calling a truce, which means we all work together or else you can go back and face Kingdok yourself. Any questions?" Khamille stuck her nose to the air. "Good. Then let's move out once more!"

"See? She won't punish us," the blue rat creature exclaimed. The beaver only put his hand son his sides.

"I think we can go this way...," Jade whispered, who was in front and side-stepping on the thin cliff.

"Jade, wait!" Khamille hissed, pulling her back. She stared up into the air. There was a blood-thirsty Kingdok frantically looking everywhere but down.

"OK, that's not the way to go," Jade cowered back.

"Well we can't go back. Kingdok is waiting!" the brown rat creature peeked its head out.

"Or Rock Jaw, don't forget about that guy," the turtle peeked his head out.

"What choice do we have?" the beaver squealed.

"Hey you bird kids. Fly into the air and see where we can go," Hotspot politely asked.

"We'll be right back," the robin kids said, flying straight into the air.

"Your birthmark is blinking faster," Jade touched it. Her pink birthmark was now blinking faster.

"We must be getting closer to the next gem!" Aisha cheered, making her way behind Jade. That's when the bird kids came back.

"There's good news and bad news."

"Give us the bad news first. If we get the good news last, that will make me feel better," Khamille suggested.

"The bad news is that the ledge keeps getting smaller and smaller," the blue robin kept flapping his wings.

"The good news is that there is a boulder flow a long way ahead. If we can reach it, we reach the forest," the yellow robin perched on Bartleby's fur.

"This is insane and stupid! I don't even know why we're _doing_ this!" the blue rat threw his hands in the air. From behind, Aisha came and gave him a whack.

"Ow! Stop hitting me!"

"The only reason we're _doing_ this is because you volunteered to come along! Now you're either in or out!" Jade snapped, then turned around to keep on.

"We're getting closer to the next gem! I can feel it!" Khamille said.

"You're searching for the dead queen's gems?" the rat creature raised his eyebrow.

"Yeah because with them we can find the lost Princess and the next heir to the throne," Jade lied.

"The dead queens gems are long gone!" the Stupid Rat waved his hand.

"He's right!" the beaver's eyes widened.

"I heard that these "gems" each have a special magic power, but they haven't been activated. They were almost useless!" a rabbit claimed.

"They were only used for the general who used them," Aisha added.

"They aren't useless! It saved me once from being a frozen statue!" Khamille kept moving.

"ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ," was the noise getting louder. It sounding like a swarm of bees.

"Uh oh! We've heard that buzzing sound before!" Jade quivered.

"Look out!" the bird called, flying away from the rocks.

"Run! It's Kingdok's locusts!" the yellow robin called out. From behind the triplet 'possum kids, a bigger swarm of locusts flew out and attacked the group.

"EEEE!"

"Run!"

"Ooh, this is all your fault!" the brown rat creature pointed to the blue.

"Me?! You're the one who made us leave our post!"

"Why oh _why_ did we have to desert our posts?" the rat animals whined more.

"Ignore them! They're just grasshoppers! They can't hurt you!" Aisha tried to convince the scared animals kids.

"AAAAH!" Jade spit out the wet grasshopper taste from he rmouth. As soon as she gave in, the toerh followed.

"Oh gross! I stepped on one!" Aisha whined.

"I can't see!"

"It's too dark!"

"Careful! The ledge is getting slippery!" Hotspot warned, still walking through the cloud of insects.

Khamille kept moving, keeping her mouth sealed. She was doing fine until she slipped on some locusts guts.

"Eww-AAAAAHHHHH!"

The sound that followed later was the crashing and crushing of rocks.

"Khamille!" everyone said.

"What happened?" the rat creature asked.

"I think she fell off the cliff!" the beaver yelled. "Khamille?"

At that time, the locusts decided to leave to stop swarming the ledge. Quickly, they got flew into the air.

"I can finally see!" Roderick cheered.

"Look down there!" the 'possum pointed down. Khamille was lying there unconscious on another larger ledge.

"Omigosh she _is_ hurt!" the pig jumped up and down in excitement. The locusts came down and started to swarm around her and the rock, making it look and different shades of green and black.

"The locusts are attacking Khamille!" Hotspot became angry.

"HEY! LAY OFF MY FRIEND OR ELSE!" Aisha warned as she began to down to the ledge.

"They weren't after us! That's a relief," the blue rat creature wiped his brow.

"Bartleby and the blue rat creature, give me your paws!" Aisha ordered.

"Ooh, let me go too!" Jade began to do the same, but Hotspot held her back.

"Jade, this is too dangerous! We're dealing with locust thingies here!"

"Aww!"

"They're picking up Khamille!" a rabbit shrieked.

"RRRRRROOOOOOAAAAARRRRR!" came from around the corner. It was Kingdok again, baring his stained teeth.

"You have to get back up!" the rat creature panicked.

Without warning, Bartleby head-butted Aisha in the stomach and pushed her up. Just then, Kingdok snapped his vast jaws twice, making the remaining group back up into the rock wall.

"No Bartleby! Let me go!"

"They've got 'er!" Jade pointed below. They lifted Khamille up and were dumping out the many things that she kept in her pockets.

"Khamille, get up!" Hotspot shouted as loud as he could. The last thing that was dumped from Khamille's pocket was a little, medallion with specific but familiar markings. A loud POW! was heard, scaring away the locusts.

Meanwhile...

Roque Ja was napping not too far from the site when he too heard the noise.

_Well, well, well. First rat creatures, then a swarm of insects_, he thought. _T__his is a very intriguing day._

With that, he slowly got up to see where and what the commotion was.

* * *

Khamille are you alright?" Aisha was the first to ask. She groaned and held her head.

"I just got this wound healed," she said before falling to the rocks again.

"At least your injuries aren't worse than that," Aisha smiled. The animals and the Stupid Rat Creatures came down also.

"What happened?" Hotspot slid down the hill.

"Something went like POW!" Jade expressed.

"The locusts are finally gone!" Khamille gingerly touched her bump, then brushed the dust off her clothes and sat up, feeling something round rub against her chest.. "And I think I landed on something."

When Khamille got up, seeing an orange blur roll down her leg and spin around in the dirt.

"Look at this!" Jade said. "Khamille, you found the next gem!"

Everyone rushed forward to see what color it was.

"It's like amber-orange," the porcupine cooed.

"Yeah, like it came from a volcano!" Jade said. Immediately after saying "volcano", she disappeared.

"Jade's gone just like that!" Aisha snapped her fingers.

"Where'd the small mammal go?" the brown rat creature eye widened too.

As if on cue, Jade returned, and she was covered in ash head to toe.

"Wha-? How? Hunh?" Hotspot held his head in amazement.

"What happened?" a jack rabbit jumped on Jade's lap.

"When I said "volcano", I was transported to a volcano and returned within seconds," she scratched her head. " I almost got burned alive!"

"I think that gems power is transportation," the blue rat creature scratched his fur. "Either that or just invisibility. Anyway, the reason why that gem is so pretty like that is because rumor has it that the gem originally was made from amber and hardened by volcano's heat. And it's called Fire Opal. I'm sure of it"

"Ooooooh!"

"I feel the sudden urge throw you guys off the mountain all of a sudden," she rubbed the back of her head.

"Why?"

"The gem must be evil," Aisha looked at it closely. The gem looked as pure as water.

"That's ridiculous!" the beaver scoffed. "But I suggest putting it in your pocket just in cane."

"Look what else is here!" one of the 'possums picked up a familiar looking medallion. The rat creatures (except for Bartleby) hissed loudly.

"Put that away!"

"What?"

"Just put it away!" they hissed. The 'possum gave the necklace to Jade, who gave it to Khamille, and there she shoved it in her pocket.

"That is what scared away The Locusts! It's a dragon thing!" the brown rat cried.

"Yes yes! A _dreaming_ thing!" the other agreed.

"This was the dragons necklace, and the dreaming was the local religion in The Valley," Aisha explained.

"Can we talk about this thing along the way? We can't stay here," Hotspot helped up Khamille. She dusted herself off from the dirt.

"Do you have the hum-hum in where you come from?" Roderick asked Jade.

"Hum-hum?"

"He means the dreaming. The hum-hum is what the animals call it," Aisha explained, getting back on the rocky trail.

"The hum-hum doesn't except in our world,"

"That's not true! The hum-hum is everywhere! It's stronger in some places, but it's everywhere!" the beaver explained.

"He's right! Didn't you feel it at the old temple!" a porcupine looked up at Aisha.

"It's always crazy over there!" a rabbit eyes were wide.

"Yeah with that whole "Kingdok" thing!"

"Kingdok felt real to me until he vanished!" the garden snake slithered along the dirt road behind Hotspot.

"Wait-he wasn't real?" Khamille raised her eyebrow.

"It was all part of a dream! When you go through there, you get nightmares! That's **exactly** what hum-hum is!"

"But we saw it! We _felt_ it!" Hotspot denied.

"You can see and feel things when you dream! The reason why nightmares like this appear is because the temple was built on an old ghost circle!" the jackrabbit hopped beside Aisha.

"It's true! If you step into a ghost circle, you disappear!" the brown rat creature pointed out.

"This magic stuff is really freaky!" Jade rubbed her head.

"I _knew_ The Locust was after Aunti and Delya!" Khamille angrily pounded her fist into the palm of her hand. "We gotta get outta here!" Khamille put the gems back in her pockets.

"All righty-o then! Let's get rollin'! You don't have anything in your mouth, do you?" Jade asked to the blue rat. Before he could respond, he opened his mouth and took a quick peek inside.

"Is anyone in there? Okay, you're cleared."

"We need to get off this mountain quick before any new crisis rears his ugly head!" Hotspot ordered. No one was aware of Roque Ja spying on them from behind.

* * *

It was now late afternoon, the Sun was beginning to set, making the sky was a darker, orange color. The talking had ceased completely in the determined group. All that was heard was the sound of rocks moving from rock to rock and feet walking.

"Aisha, remember. Bartleby must stay with the 2 Stupid Rat Creatures," Jade pointed out. Aisha groaned.

"Hey! Who are you calling stupid?! the brown rat asked.

"You!" everyone responded.

"The smoke columns are gone!" a porcupine pointed out the trees. The 2 smoke columns were no longer standing.

"Maybe we'll find out what that was when we get down there," Jade shrugged.

"Or maybe we can get some answers from you!" Khamille turned around to face the stupid rats. "What do you 2 know about the smoke columns?"

"We know nothing! We're just "traitors" as Kingdok puts it!" the brown rat creature rolled his eyes.

"Liar liar, fur on fire! Everytime I meet you or you meet us, the Great Red Dragon comes. And you always appear near dragon territory!" Jade argued. Aisha gasped and covered her mouth.

"You broke the treaty!" the beaver popped his head up and glared at them.

"Yes we knew all along, but Kingdok told us to do it! He said that his master, The Hooded One said that he felt that the Princess was alive all those years and is coming to The Valley! We were supposed to capture her, but we could never found her!" the blue rat shook his head pitifully. "If I may recall, you were one of the suspicious ones!" he pointed to Khamille.

"Kingdok actually wanted you to go through the "flat-landers" territory?" Hotspot raised his eyebrow.

"Yes yes! It wasn't so long ago that he hated them so! Back in the day, we were at peace with the humans and Kingdok left the Valley dwellers alone. All that changed once The Veni-Yan-Cari showed up, in which The Hooded one did too. With that, he came with the locusts and the dreams!" the brown rat creature told the story.

"The power of the Locust is very strong and powerful. You saw it today at the old temple! Those dreams can make you think that the sky itself is falling!" the blue continued. Everyone gasped and Bartleby covered his ears.

"The more and more Kingdok listens to the stick eater-I mean Venu and The Locust, the more he must obey, for fear of his mind being consumed by the evil spirit. We all must obey! The Locust was once a living person you know, until Satanius sent him into spirit form and banished him into another dimension," both rat creatures factually added.

"That's Delya's uncle! The family line is why the Locust is after her, but it still doesn't explain why it's after the Princess or Aunti!" Jade snapped her fingers.

"This is the kind of life you want Bartleby to be sent back to and believe in? An insect cult?" Aisha crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"Again with this religion and rat creature thing," Hotspot massaged his temples.

"The dreaming wasn't all bad, you know! Before, it was good. Now it's hard to tell what's peaceful and what's real!" Aisha air-quoted with her fingers.

"Why do you listen to The Hooded One anyway? Can't you just leave?" Jade shrugged.

"Yeah, he's not even one of your kind!" Khamille chimed in after keeping silent for awhile of walking.

"If we don't listen to him, how will we be happy?" the rat sadly did the same.

"It's call "true satisfaction". Ever heard of it?" Roque Ja answered, coming in from behind a mountain.

"What The Hooded One wants is power. When you get power is when you are satisfied," he added on.

"Satisfaction and happiness are 2 totally different things, Rock Jaw," Jade growled, clenching her fists.

"A person can be satisfied, but not happy!" Hotspot pointed up at him.

"You think someone can be truly happy, eh? Well, I'll show you happiness. Turn around. We're going the other way," the giant lion ordered.

"Hey!" everyone shouted out.

"No arguments! I want everyone to turn around and head right back right now!" he ordered as the sun disappeared behind the mountain peaks.

"We don't want to hear your lip!" Aisha snapped.

"Happines is an emotion that you can make. Power is something you can get to be happy."

"It also matters if you're good or evil!" the jack-rabbit added. "Good always triumphs over evil!"

"There is no good and evil! What's good to you is evil to the opposing side and vice versa," Roque Ja argued.

"Liar!" the beaver shook his fist at him.

"Don't you see little orphan? The sun doesn't care if the rat creatures ate your mommy and daddy. It will do its job as it has done in the past, whether you and I are here or not. Anything _rat creatures_ do is unimportant," the lion nudged the 2 Stupid Rat creatures together. "The same goes for you."

"Other things do matter Mr. Rock Jaw! Like friendship and other stuff!" Roderick yelled, as the tears fell from his eyes.

"Don't let that bully get to you," Jade warned softly

"I don't believe in friendship either. Trust no one. That's my motto," he declared.

"Well, we trust other people. You're just as lonely and as sad as The Hooded One himself!" The 1st rat creature scratched his fur.

"I'd rather hear anyone say that other than you," Roque spat, frightening the comrades. As the lion continued to talk, Aisha, Jade, Hotspot, and Khamille were bunched together and far ahead, discussing a plan.

"Once the sun sets and night falls, we can escape him since he can't find us then!" Khamille hissed.

"Don't cats have night vision?" Hotspot pointed out.

"It doesn't matter! All we have to do is get away from this accursed mountain so we can find the rest of our lost group on this expedition," Jade grumbled.

"Calm down Jade. You're saying things you don't want to say," Aisha put a hand on her shoulder, but Jade rudely shoved it off.

"Cold," Aisha put her hand back by her side.

"I think our plan's getting complicated," Khamille said, taking 2 steps back. There a few yards before them was Kingdok and a small army of rat creatures.

"Is he real?" Aisha asked.

"It's Kingdok!"

"What will we do?"

"Kingdok's back again and we're in trouble," the brown rat creature bit his dirty fingernails.

"He sure feels real," Hotspot reeled back in shock.

"Smells awful too!" Jade closed her nose.

"Turn your prisoners over to us immediately!" the king snarled.

"I was done with them anyway," Roque Ja rubbed his nails into his clean fur coat almost proud-like.

"So...were you expecting a reward?" Kingdok smiled wide. Roque Ja was too slow to see what his enemy was about to do. "Here it is!"

With 3 mighty snaps, Kingdok chomped his teeth loudly, leaning forward.

"YYYYOOOWW!" the lion growled, scaring him away. The smaller rat creatures laughed at the large animal.

"Look at the Master of the Eastern Border go!" they taunted.

"What a scaredy-cat!" Aisha waved him bye. She was instantly grabbed and choked on the throat by the blue rat creature.

"Grrrk! Lemme...go!" she kicked and fussed.

"Not so fast!" the blue grabbed Hotspot's throat.

"Rrr! The traitors!" the opossum's said altogether.

"See, Kingdok? We were never traitors! We only pretended to truce with the animals and humans, only to capture these kids in the end!" the rat creature offered Jade and Hotspot to their king.

"I suppose I can forgive you...," he muttered. "We can bring them to The Hooded One and put them in the freeze machine."

"Oh no you're not! Hotspot said as he powered into his fiery superhero form. The blue rat creature dropped him, blowing on his scorched hands. Jade was next as she bit into the brown rat creatures bony fingers.

"Ah!" he recoiled. Jade and Khamille each took a gem and used its powers to throw rocks at the 2 Stupid Rat Creatures.

"Take that, traitors!" Khamille grunted, using the Red Ruby's earth-bending powers to smash rocks into their heads. This gave Aisha and Hotspot a chance to scamper away into the dark woods.

"I knew we couldn't trust them from the start!" Jade grunted, using the Purple Amethyst to mentally throw rocks at the rat creatures.

"Animals orphans attack!" the furious beaver yelled. All the animals joined in the fight too, biting the stupid rats everywhere they could get a chance at.

"Yeow!"

"Help me, Your Majesty!" the blue rat creature pleaded. Kingdok and his followers looked confused.

"OK guys! IT'S NOW OR NEVER!" Aisha barked, running into the trees with the animals right behind them.

"Don't let them get away!" Kindgok pointed to the escapees. Like cattle, the rat creatures ran after their prey.

"Everyone, grab a rock!" Hotspot shouted over the fireballs he was raining down where he could see at. Everywhere a rat creature was at, he/she was either being bitten, burnt, or injured from the rocks. A little earthshaking made the fighting hard, forcing everyone to hold on to one another.

"Here's **your **reward Kingdok!" Roque Ja snarled and pounced on Kingdok head on. He fell on his back and laid there, as if her were dead. The rat creatures stopped trying to eat the animals and heroes and flew at Kingdok's aid.

"Bye Noriah! I hope to see you again!" Roderick waved at her and her friends as the animals scurried into the dark.

"Thanks for everything, Roderick! You too!" she replied. Roderick and the 'possums disappeared into the night as Bartleby ran from Aisha. He blended right in with the 2 Stupid Rats and some others

"Hey wait!" Aisha tried to run after him, but Jade and Hotspot pulled her back.

"Remember our deal?" Jade crossed her arms.

"Aisha, you need to move on! Bartleby will be just _fine_ on his own," Khamille emphasized. She felt good that Bartleby was returned to his family, but way worse on the inside for Aisha. She walked on into the forest with Hotspot (now in human form) and Jade by her side.

"You coming?" Hotspot turned around. Aisha stared sadly at her young rat friend, fitting right in with his kin.

_Good luck, little Bartleby. I hope to see you soon_, the depressed girl made a weak smile that lasted only a 2 seconds. With that, she made a small wave, knowing the rat cub wouldn't see. With that, she turned around and slowly walked up to her friends, who were already far ahead.

**A/N * = When I wrote that, it made it feel like watching Xiaolin Showdown.**

**That. Took. FOREVER! But now that I'm finished I can move on to the 2nd team (Jinx, Kid Flash, Mas y Menos).**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Remember that we're doing what 3 teams did on 1 day, so we're starting from what Mas y Menos, Kid Flash, and Jinx did along with the villain team.**

**Dis: Colleen, Cody, Chrissie, and Angus (Colleen's grandfather) belong to StellaMagic. Enjoy!**

* * *

As Khamille and her team headed into the Eastern Mountains, Jinx, Kid Flash, and Mas y Menos (in disguise) were up and ready to start the day. The only thing that was stopping them was that none of them knew where to go or what to do.

"Good morning Jinxie and Flash the Kid," Mas and Menos greeted them.

"Our names are Jinx and Kid Flash," Jinx groaned, rubbing her eyes. The sun's rays peeked through the trees, getting into her eyes. Kid Flash was already awake and eating an apple loudly beside her.

"Mornin'," he said with a mouthful.

"We were just kidding, sleepyhead!" Mas laughed.

"But you were the last ones to wake up."

"Don't ruin the moment!" Menos' smile turned upside down.

"The moment was _going_ to get ruined because we don't have any anything to eat for breakfast!" Jinx stood up to pace (pacing was now one of her favorite pastimes). Kid Flash cleared his tthrot and put down his apple.

"Do you not see the apple I have in my hand that I'm chewing as loud as I can with?" he playfully asked, taking another bite of his breakfast. Everyone looked at his apple, then up in the air.

"Fruit trees!" Mas cheered as his brother lifted him into the air. They shot straight up into the tree, then back down again with many fruits in their hands. Jinx turned to her boyfriend.

"How many of those did you eat?" she raised her eyebrow as she grabbed a peach from Mas' hands.

"Um...about 4. They were really good though, so this is my fifth and last one," Kid Flash promised. In 2 more bites, he finished and threw away the apple core.

"No more."

"While we eat our fruit breakfast's you run around and see if any piece of this forest looks familiar," Jinx said, taking a bite of her peach.

"Who died and made you queen?"

"Just go!"

"Be right back!"

In a flash (literally), the red-headed speedster ran away in a red and yellow blur.

_Why is life so complicated when he's running around me in circles?_ Jinx mentally sighed. Kid Flash returned with a half-smile on his face.

"OK, there's good news and bad news," he replied. Mas and Menos threw away the orange and apples carelessly and got up.

"Tell us the good news first!"

"No! The bad news!"

"Good news!"

"Bad news!"

"Good!"

"Bad!"

Menos pushed Mas to the ground and jumped on him, only for Mas for use his legs to push him back. When both twins got up, they started hitting, kicking, and doing everything they could to beat the other.

"Let's just start with the bad news then," Kid Flash watched the Guatemalan brothers tangle. "The bad news is that we're might be stuck in this forest for a while. The good news is that a few miles ahead is Barrelhaven. The other good news is that since 3 of us can run really fast, so we can take you with us," Kid Flash nonchalantly shrugged.

"So there was no bad news after all," Jinx stood up.

"Yeah I know. I just realized that."

"Ugh, you're such an idiot at times," Jinx shook her head pitifully.

"But that's the best part of me," Kid smirked. As Jinx jumped into her boyfriend's back, Mas and Menos stopped fighting.

"Where are you guys going?" Mas sat on top of his brother.

"Barrelhaven isn't too far ahead. If you're done fighting like little girls, you'll come with us," Kid joked. Mas y Menos frowned heavily.

"That was _so_ not cool," they replied, grabbing each other's forearm.

"Race you to the Barrelhaven gate! Last one there is a rotten egg!" Menos challenged.

"Fine then! Ready set-!" Kid leaned forward.

"Doesn't anyone count my vote?!" Jinx asked aloud.

"GO!"

"Mas y Menos, si podemos!"

After that one word, all that was left of the dirt was grass, some dust and some fruit cores blown deeper in the forest.

"Come catch us!" Mas raspberried Kid. He and his brother were in the lead and Kid Flash was right behind.

"The race isn't done yet! Watch and learn how it's done, little ones!" he bragged. He put in a little boost that strode just past the twins.

"_TOO FAST! TOO FAST_!" drool flew Jinx's mouth like a river. No one could hear her.

"There's the gate!" Menos pointed.

"Let's make this count, bro!" his brother said. They also put in their super boost too, making the running race a tie. As Kid was about to touch the gate, Jinx fell off and rolled into the trunk of a tree and a little bush, making some leaves and some fruit drop on her.

"Why oh _why_ did I get stuck with a group full of boys?" Jinx rubbed her head. She looked up to find a sparkle on one of the fruits.

"What is that?"

Jinx slowly picked up the fruit, only to find it harder than the others. With her "bad luck" powers, Jinx's eyes turned bright pink and the orange's skin split, showing a beautiful white diamond on the inside.

"It's so beautiful," she cooed.

"Hey Slowpoke! You got off my back! What for?" Kid Flash came back. "You made me lose!"

"Where are the twins now?"

"They already went inside."

"Look what I found!" Jinx almost shoved the newfound gem in Kid's face.

"Ooh, pretty!"

"I found it in an orange," Jinx stood up.

"Let's see what power it has!" he reached for the jewel, but Jinx shoved it in her pocket.

"Not now! We'll find out what power it has once we get _inside_ the city," Jinx once again jumped on Kid's back.

"Ride on, Kid Steed!" Jinx laughed, smacking his back. As Jinx finished her sentence her boyfriend took off, stopping in front of the wooden gates.

"Now we can find a way to use the gem!" Kid snatched the gem out of Jinx's pocket.

"Give that back!"

Without listening to her, the boy squeezed the jewel as hard as he could.

"See ya!" he saluted. As Kid Flash's back was turned against the gate, he quickly sunk into the wall and appeared on the other side.

"Whoa!" Kid looked at the jewel he tightly held. He didn't realize that he was sinking into the ground until he looked down.

"Ahh! Help!" he cried, reaching out to no one in particular. Just when Kid was about to be forever gone underground, Jinx grabbed her his wrist with both hands, slowly pulling him up. From a good distance away, Mas y Menos (who were waiting for the other half of their team to join them) saw everything.

"Dude, I'm hoping you saw what I saw!" Mas' eyes went wide.

"Pff! Probably just a cheap trick!" Menos crossed her arms and turned away.

"Only one way to find out!" Mas said as he grabbed his brother and ran in the couples direction.

"The jewel made me pass through the gate, like I was a ghost or something," boy speedster got up to dust himself off. "And thanks for saving me, Jinxie. How'd you get to the other side anyway?"

"I jumped. You know how acrobatic I am," Jinx bragged, brushing her nails into her shirt. "Without me, you would have sunk to the Earth's core already. Now give me that jewel already!"

Reluctantly, Kid handed a slightly-angry Jinx the diamond.

"It looked so pure I just _had_ to touch an' see what power it had," he kicked at nothing.

"That was so cool what you did when you went through that wall!" Mas and Menos jumped up and down like giddy children.

"Whoa! Flash, Jinx, Mas and Menos what are you guys doing here?" a familiar voice asked. The voice was coming from under a tree which provided a large, hiding the person perfectly.

"Who are you?"

"Come out so we can fight!" Menos jumped around like a boxing kangaroo. Behind him Mas shook his fist angrily.

"Hold on, there's no need to fight! It's just me, Colleen O'Connell!" Colleen said as she stepped out from the shadows with a welcome smile on her face.

"Hey Col!" Jinx ran up to hug her. "Before you say anything, we have a certain reason why we came back."

"You can explain everything as we go to my house," Colleen nodded in an understanding manner. "Follow me please."

* * *

"Let's go over the plan one last time," Hsi Wu ordered. Blackfire, Mumbo, MC Cobra, Monkey King, Ice (he decided to come along) and the sky demon (again in human form) himself all stood in a circle talking quietly amongst themselves far from Barrelhaven's gates.

"I still can't believe Drago, my _stupid half-demon nephew_, chose a _girl_ over us," the Sky demon growled.

"And the girl was De-girl," Ice clucked his tongue. "I knew that lizard foo' still had feelings for her. But then again, almost any guy would."

"What's wrong with girls?" Blackfire looked down and put her hands on her hips at Hsi Wu. Her eyes gleamed an iridescent neon-ish purple.

"I meant Delya, not girls in general!"

"Ahem! As I was tryin' to say before! I, the new dragon, will chase Cobra around the forest pretending to try and kill him and stuff. He runs through the gate, declaring that a dragon trying to hurt him and pretends to cry like a baby," DJ laughed.

"What?! Crying wasn't originally in the plan, yo!" Cobra glared at his friend.

"You better start waterworks then 'cause it's gonna take more than being Mr. Scaredy-Cat to get those people outta here," Ice mocked.

"You should also make a heart-breaking story that melts those people's hearts," Monkey King drew a cracked heart in the dirt.

"The people will hear and try and comfort Cobra. Then Monkey King and Mumbo will walk in, pretending as if nothing was happening and ask what's the commotion. Cobra will then explain that a dragon was chasing him and trying to destroy him or something," Blackfire waved her hand dismissively.

"Make sure you add the "spiritual dragon"," Hsi Wu looked over at a nervous Cobra.

"Whatever."

"Mumbo and Monkey King will take pity on him but won't know what to do about him. The people make the magicians change to whatever time they want and leave according to that time. When it gets to a certain point, we'll leave those dumb humans in the forest in the night while we go to wherever The Hooded One wants us to go," Hsi Wu cackled.

"Just in case those dumb people try to come back, the rat creatures will come in and burn down their houses," Monkey King chuckled. "This plan is foolproof! Nothing can possibly go wrong!"

"Unless people get wise to our plans," Mumbo brushed his moustache hair.

"Man, whatchu talkin' bout, magic man?" Ice huffed,

"There was one man in there all mad-like as we made our "fake speech". He was old and he didn't seem too happy about what we were saying. I don't know if the man has powers but he seems like the brawler type."

"If he says anything like that, you should use your magic and trap him or something. Maybe even a practical joke on him would work," Monkey King shrugged. He too had also seen an angry Lucius, but he didn't care.

"And that's the plan. We'll plan out what to do the rest of the time," DJ cracked his knuckles. Cobra gulped but got in a runners postion, hands to the ground and bottom up.

"We're giving you a 10 second head start! We **are** pretty far from Barrelhaven, so just run as fast as you can and DJ Fist will do the rest," Ice gave DJ a pat on the back.

"Ready, set, GO!"

Cobra took off jogging, saving the running for later. He didn't even want to look back at DJ Fist, who was stretching his limbs.

"5, 4, 3, 2, 1!" Blackfire counted down. "Go DJ!"

_Now the real running begins_, Cobra thought as a fireball blasted ahead of him.

* * *

"The forces of evil are coming _here_?" Colleen worried.

"Yes. Say, do you nothing anything else about the jewel magic and those "general" people that held them?" Jinx asked her female friend.

"I think. It's been so long since I've ever thought about the jewels like that," Colleen scratched the back of her head. Jinx took out the diamond out from her pocket and gave it to Colleen, who thoroughly examined it.

"This one is called the "White Diamond". Even though it's not white at all, this one gives whoever possesses it the power to pass through solid objects. I believe Crystal was the general who had this one," Colleen recalled. "This gem is particularly difficult when one uses it at first because you have to actually master this power. If you aren't careful, you might pass through Earth itself or get stuck in-between something."

"No wonder why it felt like I was sinking in quicksand," Kid Flash sheepishly rubbed his neck.

"The gem is dangerous?" Menos looked with a serious face on.

"Not exactly dangerous, per say. There are other harder gems to master than the White Diamond. So where's Hotspot, Aisha, Khamille, Delya, Jade and that little rat creature Aisha found?"

The undercover superheroes shrugged, feeling ashamed for what had happened.

"What do you mean "you don't know"? Did they just disappear in thin air?" Colleen worried more.

"No. What happened yesterday night was _very_ bad. Delya sacrificed herself to save us and used her dark magic necklace to split us up and to go in different places. She might be a frozen stature for all we know right about now," Menos stared at the ground.

"We haven't heard from everyone else ever since," Mas explained.

"LOOK OUT!" A loud cry was heard. Colleen turned around to see who had said that when she was head-butted in the chest and sent crashing to the ground, almost knocking the breath from her lungs.

"Ow! Hey, watch where you're going and who you're head-butting, mister!" Colleen snapped, grabbing the person's head off her chest and bringing it up. The guy had eyes as big as the moons and a mouth wide open like a fish hooked on a fishing hook.

"I can't believe it's him!" Mas hissed. It was MC Cobra trying to play "good guy".

"Whatever he's doing, I have to admit that he's pretty good at acting," Kid Flash replied, crossing his arms and frowning. "What's his name anyway?"

"He doesn't really say much," Jinx replied.

"Lemme help you," the adolescent grabbed Colleen' hand and pulled her up with a lift. "What's your name?"

"Colleen O'Connell," Colleen lightly massaged her chest. "What were you running from?"

"I shouldn't tell you," he quivered, looking around the neighborhood.

"C'mon already! Stop being a blubbering baby and spit it out!" Jinx put her hands on her hips.

"I know you're thinking they aren't real, but I was running from a dragon!" Cobra whispered to his enemies. While the heroes knew him, he found them familiar.

"A dragon? Those aren't real," Mas stepped in to lie.

"Are you lying?" Mas stepped forward to examine him.

"You think **this** is a lie?" the teen turned over and showed his pants to the people. His pants was burnt and all that was shown was his white with purple polka-dot underwear.

"We need a censoring machine here!" Kid unintentionally joked, covering his eyes. Jinx was about to say something smart to the older teenager when something that sounded like loud fire blast, coming from outside the gates.

"You guys hear that?" Menos bit his nails. Everyone else from inside their houses came out also, one-by-one came outside to see a dark figure blow fire up ion the air, then dash away. This made Cobra sob openly, not even bothering to cover his face.

"What's wrong, little man?" Wendell came out the tavern with his best friend Euclid beside him. Lucius came out also.

"What was all that commotion about?" he looked around. Colleen and the Titans were at the back of the crowd, watching them try and comfort Cobra.

"I-I-It was the d-dragon who b-b-burnt me! I was walking here in order to find a new life and a house to live in when he showed up! I d-didn't want to cause trouble with him, but all of a sudden, he opened his mouth and breathed fire on me! I t-t-tried to a-a-apologize for whatever I had done that had made him angry, but he wouldn't hear of it!" Cobra touched his hair. A few purple strands fell out, making him cry softly again.

"Lemme help you, boy. What's your name?" Euclid lifted Cobra up to his feet.

"Where is that magican and monkey when we need him?" Wendell grumbled to himself.

"Michael. Michael Cristiano Cobra," the acting teen brushed off the ash on his clothes.

"Cristiano?" Lucius suspiciously looked at him. "And what kinda of last name is "Cobra"? Like a snake?"

"My mother was Spanish, my father was Italian*, and I know I have a weird last name. I used to get picked on all the time about it," Cobra retorted. Lucius took a step back at "Michael's tone.

"What's going on? I can't see anything because of people in the way?" Angus asked his granddaughter. Chrissie and Cody were also with him. Colleen felt heartbroken for Cobra while Mas, Jinx, Kid Flash, and Menos glared at Cobra.

"What's up Colleen?" Chrissie waved.

"Hey Col. We were wondering what took you so long," Cody asked. Colleen didn't answer, instead she pointed to the crowd.

"Michael got chased by a dragon and he said it was trying to burn him alive," Colleen summarized what she heard.

"Wait. I thought the dragons were in their homes."

"Somehow, one got out and attacked him out of nowhere."

"Something smells _very_ fishy here," Chrissie cupped her chin thoughtfully.

"Yeah. Let's keep on going," Kid Flash pulled Angus' and Colleen's arm forward.

"Hold it, what's the fuss goin' 'round here?" a fun and joker-like voice bellowed.

"Ladies and Germs, boys and girls, what's the ruckus? You should be in your houses preparing to leave at sunset," another continued. That joker and persuading attitude and voices belonged to none other than Monkey King and Mumbo, who were strolling up to the large crowd.

"Mumbo ands Monkey King are here too?" Mas asked. "Something fishy is definitely going on."

"Monkey King, Michael here has something to say," Wendell brought Cobra up in from of him.

"Well, Mr. Monkey King, a dragon tried to burn me," he whispered. His face was blotchy and his eyes were red from the crying.

"What a wimp," Cody huffed. "I thought boys weren't supposed to cry openly like that."

"Exactly!" Kid agreed.

"What? When?" Mumbo asked with pity.

"Not too long ago," he looked at the ground as if he were ashamed to tell the truth (even though it wasn't). Monkey King began to make a short speech about how dangerous the situation was getting. Everyone except Colleen listened as she saw Cobra make a tiny smile, smirking at nothing. When she blinked, the smile was gone and replaced with the innocent look.

_So he _is_ acting this out! _she thought as she clenched her fists.

"Let's show those who's the boss of this Valley!" Mumbo thrust his fist in the air. The crowd, cheered, tossing their hats in the air. This time, Colleen didn't do anything, along with her grandfather.

"Who do these weirdos think they're kiddin'! The demon dragons harm humans! The spiritual _help_!" Angus shook his head.

"I know. The Great Red Dragon would never hurt The Valley. Sure, his mother Queen Mim was controlled with The Locust and went mad, but Red Dragon's not crazy!" Colleen agreed.

"What're you babblin' about?! The Dragons are real and they don't hurt us! They are our friends if you just let them!" Lucius cried out, silencing the cheering.

"Soooooo if you're saying the Dragons are our friends, then why did they burn Michael?" Mumbo side-hugged him.

"It was probably a mistake! Besides, the Dragon don't come out of Dragon's Stair, do they? NO! If they did, they would talk to us **outside** of civilization!" Lucius ranted on. Everyone gasped.

"Lucius you don't know what you're saying!" Wendell placed a hand on the old man's shoulder, but he shrugged it off and moved closer to Mumbo. Euclid and Jonathan blocked him from moving closer.

"You're not getting any closer if you're thinking of hurting these 2 gentle-beings," Euclid crossed his arm in front of his chest defiantly. Jonathan did also.

"You all are too blind to see that these guys are leading you down the wrong path!"

"Or maybe you're just saying that because you're the Dragon's ally! You were a royal guard back in the day, if I do recall myself," Jonathan jammed his index finger into Lucius's chest. "In fact, you were good friends with that magic consultant! I had forgotten what her name was, though."

"They're talking about Aunti!" Kid Flash's eyes went wide.

"Well, yes but-!"

"Aha! What he said is the lie, is it not?" Mumbo raised his eyebrow.

"Of course not!"

"I bet the whole time he's been living here, he's been conversing with them," Monkey King pointed his staff to him. The old man turned beet red.

"It's been awhile since I've talked to any dragon," he mumbled.

"You also said that believing in Dragons is children's stories and not for men to dwell on," Wendell clenched his fist.

"You've got to listen to me before it's too late!" Lucius yelled as he was being pulled back by Euclid and Jonathan. "They're phonies and the only reason they're saying this is because they want to take over!"

"The only reason you're accusing us is because you are afraid being accused of betrayal old man, which is what you did, is it not? In fact, we're not giving you a choice to answer that question because it's obvious now you are a traitor!" Mumbo declared. With 2 waved of his magic wand, magic dust flew out and surrounded him. With a flash of bright light, what surrounded Lucius was a small jail cell.

"My name is Lucius, not old man!" he retorted.

"You should've thought us saying that before chump!" Monkey King made a face at Lucius. "While we're go, you'll stay here."

No one bothered to say or stand up for Lucius now, thinking that his fate was well deserved.

"You should've not said anything, dude," Jonathan shook his head before returning to the tavern.

"You know what you did," Wendell followed after Jonathan.

"When I first met you, I didn't realize you were a traitor," Euclid spat out, then actually spit out on Lucius's face. The spit slid off Lucius's face and fell onto the dirt.

"So now since the Dragons, Titans, and Chan are getting dangerous, we must leave at 2:30 **pronto**!" Mumbo declared with a magical megaphone. After he stopped talking, the crowd talked amongst one another about their plans and what not. Pretty soon, the crowd cleared, and so did the imposters. Even "Michael" had vanished. The only people not going to their homes was the Titans and Colleen, Cody, Chrissie, and Angus.

"We should talk to him," Jinx stepped forward.

"We shouldn't," Kid nodded

"Leave him alone," Angus agreed with Kid Flash. "He's had enough trouble today."

"We're just going to ask him a few questions" Mas and Menos ran up to the metal cage. Lucius had his head in his hands, but he felt heard the footsteps and looked up.

"Go away."

"He didn't even let us ask!" Mas pouted.

"You didn't have to play the brave card. Now everyone thinks you're a traitor when you know you aren't," Chrissie pitied the jailed man.

"I said _go away_."

"Let's listen to Mr. Angus leave Lucius alone. We'll decide what to do at your house," Kid tried to pull Colleen from the cage, but she wouldn't budge.

"But-!"

"You saw what happened back there. They say I am a traitor, so I am! I have my own problems to deal with, and they don't involve you!" Lucius waved his hand at her. "Besides, you're all just kids. You're too young to understand."

"But we're trying to prove you innocent!" Menos pleaded on his knees.

"You were foolish to come back! Now that the imposters are back, you're in big trouble then before."

"We know we're in trouble, but we're the Teen Titans. We risk our lives to defeat our enemies, even if that does mean beating up a walking and talking monkey and a crazy dressed magician. We also risk our lives to protect the innocent, even if that means you Lucius," Kid Flash said with a soft tone.

"Before Kiera passed away, she taught Cody, Chrissie, and I to protect the weak and humble and defeat the strong and arrogant. You're trying to be the strong I can tell, but inside you're weak! You know that you're doomed and no one will listen to you, but we will. If you just give us a chance, we all can talk this out with you," Colleen got on her knees. Lucius grabbed the bars of the cage and looked at the ground, then up to face the teen's faces.

"Alright fine."

"Yes!" Mas y Menos rejoiced, spinning each other around.

"Don't you think you're being pushy?" Angus placed a hand on Colleen's shoulder.

"No, she's right. I think it's about time I tell you all about my past," the man cleared his throat and sat criss-cross. "You need to know my story before you get to know _me_."

*** = By looking at MC Cobra's skin tone, I thought he was mixed with Mexican and Italian.**


	5. Chapter 5

2:00 pm had just struck on the clock and Colleen, Mas y Menos, Kid Flash, Jinx, Cody, Chrissie, and Angus were all sitting around a jailed Lucius, who was about to tell the story of his past.

"My life started out in a small home outside the gates of Atheia. I had 3 older sisters, making me the youngest. My father worked near the castle, selling small antiquities. My mother worked _inside_ the castle, being a 3rd level dreaming master and serving the Queen," Lucius reluctantly started out.

"You mean Khamille's mother?" Colleen's eyes widened.

"Her mother before her. Her grandmother, Queen Cassandra I believe," Lucius scratched his half-bald head.

"No, it was Queen Cordelia, "Angus said. "And I remember working with your mother, Alice was it?"

"Yes. My father always came home at sunset, and my mom come home occasionally from time to time because her job teaching the Queen's children was very difficult. I was never allowed to come to my mother's workplace, but one day I disobeyed and secretly followed along with her to the castle." Lucius chuckled a little. "If I didn't practice hide-n-seek with my sisters a lot, I'm sure I would have been caught by my mom and grounded. When I walked into the castle grounds, it was swarming with guards, dream masters, advisors, magic consultant and such. The only reason I had followed my mom was to see the queen, not everyone else so I snuck past all of them and managed to get to the upper floors."

"You actually got past that whole crowd of people without them noticing an intruder?" Jinx raised her eyebrow at the almost unbelievable story. "I seriously doubt that."

"I had a few short calls here and there, but I actually _did_ get away. I guess they were too caught up with their jobs to see what's under their noses. I didn't like how poorly the guards had not seen a mere child escape their defenses, and that's when Cordelia snuck up on me."

"So much for being a super spy," Mas y Menos clucked their tongues in mock sorrow.

"To this day, I don't know how she discovered me, but I remember the exact words she said when she had caught me," the old man stared up at the cage of his jail cell with happiness. "I had heard many stories for my mother **and** father that the Queen was very strict, but she was only like that because of her job as the Queen making her so stressful that she had no time for games."

"Did she use the gems?" Chrissie asked, taking in the important info down in her head.

"No. For some odd reason, the gems never activated. They were just regular gems," Lucius hid his tone of sadness in his voice.

"So what did Cordelia say to you?" Angus leaned over the cage.

"As I quote "You, my young friend, have just passed through all my defenses and everyone in the building but me. Usually, people who do this would be sent straight to prison, but I have spared you. Your mother Alice works at my side, does she not? How about this; since you are very skilled the "spying", when you get older to become a young man, you can come work here at the castle as the chieftain, if the spot is available. I would love to have a better chief of protecting my family and The Valley from harm".

"I thought you were toast," Kid wiped his brow.

"With that she sent me off and I ran back to my home, this time I didn't care if anybody had seen me. After what had resulted that day, I had swore not to tell anyone what had happened with my meeting with the queen or even touch Atheia's castle grounds. I savored that amazing experience for when I was older to live on my own," Lucius smiled grandly.

"Was the spot available?" Chrissie sat crisscross on the ground. She and the others were interested in the some-what exciting life-told story.

"Yes, because the queen had just fired the past one. It appeared that he was doing an irresponsible job. The Queen was happy once I was the chief because she was confident that I would keep her safe, and I did. No matter how big or small the problem was in The Valley, I took care of it. When Queen Cordelia passed on and her daughter Mereilia took after her mother's work, my own work got harder as new enemies and changes in The Valley came."

"When Mereilia became Queen, Lucius got to meet Cody, Chrissie, my grandfather and I," Colleen smiled. Lucius nodded at that.

"That is true, and I was happy about that. Around that time was when one by one, the jewels activated itself. Rumor had it was because each of the 9 planets location and the Sun's.

"I don't think Pluto counts as a planet anymore," Cody put his hands on his hips.

Before it was. Once Mereilia, Crystal, Keira, Mellyn, Amber, Evelyn, Obadhi, Diane, Denashi, and Eliza came to Atheia, the jewels were attracted to them. They activated themselves and went to each of the 10 women's aid. I didn't believe in magic for myself, but after getting to use one of the gems I was a true believer. As I was saying before, I didn't realize how hard my job would get until **The Nights of Lightning** came," Lucius got quiet. Colleen, Angus, Cody, and Chrissie stared at the ground also.

"Talk about the moment of silence," Mas muttered.

"During the first night, Crystal, Evelyn and Denashi were crucially hurt and put in a coma. They never emerged from it. A few nights before Amber, Diane, and Obadhi were trapped inside the city and burned alive. Mellyn, Keira, Eliza, and Queen Mereilia and most of her family were eaten alive outside of Atheia's gates. Luckily Angus, Eva, and I escorted Cody, Colleen, Chrissie and some others out of Atheia and moved here A few days later after the attack had died down, we buried them. Eva went beyond The Valley and left. I though all was lost for us and the Royal Family until Delya told me Khamille was actually Princess Noriah Harvestar." Lucius looked up with hope. "My life had led up to this."

"Wait, who's this "Eva" you all speak of?" Menos' eyebrow raised his eyebrow.

"That was her real name, but we too called her "Aunti" since she was older than the rest of us," Lucius slightly smiled.

"So you said you worked with Dragons. Is it true?" Kid's eyes were wide open.

"Occasionally. Sometimes they were stubborn, but yes, we worked with them at times."

"Then you should help us and tell these people that the Dragons, Jackie Chan, and the Teen Titans are fighting for their safety from those criminals!" Jinx explained.

"I wish I could, but jail is magic and there is nothing I can do about this," the elder tried to break free, but it wouldn't budge.

"Do you at least know where any of the gems are?" Mas pleaded. "We have the White Diamond already, so we can use 1 more to give those guys a spanking!"

"Where's your other friends? There were more of you, right? What happened to Delya anyway?" Lucus looked around to see if they were there, which they were not.

"Delya's inside the "freeze machine" and Khamille, Hotspot, Aisha and her rat creature, and Jade they don't know," Chrissie shrugged. Lucius covered his mouth in horror and stared at the ground, not knowing what to say.

"Ah, General Crystal of the White Diamond army," he regained his words.

"They had armies?!" Kid grinned ear to ear.

"Of course! You can't be called a general if you don't have an army to command it with! After Queen Mereilia died, I too took one of the gems and hid it somewhere near Old Man's Cave. I can't exactly remember which one it was," Lucius scratched his head. "Angus and Aunti had taken one and the others had hid them all over The Valley. They inactivated the gems so when it had become the right time for themselves to activate, then it would again."

"And we don't even have a locator spell or anything to track the inactivated jewels down," Colleen face palmed.

"Old Man's Cave...isn't that the place you had told us about earlier, Cody?" Jinx stood up.

"Yeah. It is. We would train there sometimes," Cody bragged.

"I bet if you could find it, you could also find a way to made it powerful again," Lucius had a serious tone. "It should be South of here."

"Maybe we don't need a locator spell after all," Kid smiled. "At least we have Lucius to give us a clue on where the gem is."

"I know we aren't allowed to take foreigners of The Valley, but I guess it couldn't hurt if we took you all along," Chrissie smiled.

"So the plan is we leave all grab our stuff and get outta here before the people do!" Colleen said, grabbing her grandfather by the arm and pulling him to her house. The Honorary Titans followed because they had nothing to pack.

* * *

Meanwhile...

Monkey King and Mumbo returned to DJ, Ice, Blackfire, and Hsi Wu, who this time, were willing waiting for the jokesters to come back.

"So how did it go?" DJ smirked. "Did he cry like a baby and get burned good?"

"Oh yeah! Cobra cried like a newborn baby!" Mumbo and the monkey did a high-five. "I have to say he's a pretty good actor."

"But where is the dude?" Ice asked.

"The people took him into their tavern to warm him up."

"Now tell us when do we leave so we can do other stuff?!" Hsi Wu sprouted out his wings and flew in front of Mumbo. he pushed him aside, making him crash on the ground hard.

"Ow!"

"Keep your wings clipped! It's only, like 2:10 pm! We leave at 2:30 pronto so set your watches for that time!" Monkey King whirled his staff fancy like. "We're going to own these people harder than I owned Lucius!"

"Lucius?" Blackfire asked with suspicion.

"The old man Lucius was talking about earlier. He really does look like the type to start a bar fight. He tried to tell everyone what we're saying isn't true, but they were too foolish to believe him. I trapped him in a jail cell that was made from my magic," the monkey leaned against one of the trees.

"Good. We don't need that foo' messin' up our plans an hour befo' we get to get outta here," Ice crossed his arms. "He can't get out, right?"

"No, unless one of the people were packing magic," Mumbo scratched his head.

"I highly doubt the "Lucius" man you speak of will be able to be set free," Blackfire smiled. "Anyway, we should find out exactly where to go to find the Dragon's Stair if our plan is going to work."

"What should we do when we leave?" Hsi Wu dusted the dirt off his wings.

"Since DJ is still the dragon, we'll pretend to chase and kill him too," Blackfire pinched DJ's red cheeks.

"What?! WE never had a problem before!"

"We have to make it look like you're going to die. Besides, Cobra would want to see your face when you be a sacrifice!" Ice slapped his knee. DJ groaned heavily.

* * *

"How could you not have retrieved the Fire Opal! Now the girl and her friends has it!" Raina stomped her feet on the ground in anger and slicing everything in her way with her scythe.

_"Oh stop throwing a tantrum! There are still others we have not retrieved,_" The Locust ignored his student's tantrum. _"Before the night of the Blood Moon, she won't have it for long _and_ she won't be alive to take it back, along with Delya."_

The Hooded One stopped stamping her feet and put her hand to her chin.

"Well yes. You are right. We still have the White Diamond, Yellow Beryl, Green Emerald, Indigo Azurite, and Black Onyx to discover."

_"Actually, The White Diamond was just discovered by a girl with witch-like powers _and_ it has been activated."_

Raina cursed under her breath and her eyes turned demon red. She turned and punched the nearest wall to relieve her anger, leaving a crack that ran up and down that wall.

_"Calm down. Evil will prevail and this time I am sure of it. I bet the son of Shendu and his team are doing well in convincing the townsfolk to leave,_" The Locust said with a voice that made Rains feel like relaxing.

"No. I know he's not doing his job. Delya has convinced him to take her to the magic consultant, the one who had defeated me almost 14 years ago.

"_WHAT?! She is still alive_?!" The Locust raged too. If he had the ability to pound something, he would have.

"I don't even have a clue where she or Drago and Delya are at the moment," T.H.O. bit her fingernails unconsciously. Along with punching and destroying things, biting her nails was another bad habit. "They must be so happy together I could just destroy them both!"

"_You seem jealous, Raina. Jealous that Drago has chosen your older sister over you_."

"Tch! I am not jealous of that **half-demon**! There is no way I would crush on a demon with a lower rank than mine!" the resurrected demon girl spat.

"_No need to get mad over it, I was just checking on your emotions. No need to worry though; once you and I rule the world, the men will start to fall for you quicker than they fall for your sister. Right now, I must concentrate on finding the next emerald to reveal itself before it gets found_," The Locust disappeared once more, letting Raina could relax more easily. Slowly, she sat down and served herself a cup of steaming green tea and drank the whole cup.

"I hope the happy couple suffers because I'm going to make sure they don't..."

* * *

The sun was still up but some dark clouds covered the sky, making it look like a thunderstorm would come anytime soon. Fog arose in places that were but far away. Lucius stared at the fog in anger.

_I'm not letting that delinquent and his friends start another war_, Lucius angrily thought as he break free of his prison, but no dice. _What has this world come to? Another war is about to start and my so-called friends are joining them? I don't even know why I befriended them._

The good guys emerged from Colleen's house. Angus, Colleen, Cody, and Chrissie had their bags on their backs while Jinx, Kid Flash, Mas y Menos had nothing.

"Okay, Lucius. We're all ready to go!" Chrissie exclaimed, waving her hands.

"We were already ready to go!" Mas joked. His brother gave him a high-five and laughed too.

"Good one bro!"

"You better hurry. In 5 minutes, the townspeople are about to leave," Lucius eyes were wide with worry.

"We're fine," Kid Flash stood proudly with his hands on his hips.

"Good, because we've had a change of plans."

Everyone's jaw dropped wide open, Mas y Menos' the farthest.

"But-!"

"I know what I said, but I've changed my mind. Just leaving my friends survive on their own just won't cut it, so I want you to ambush them now! I have a feelin' something _bad_ gonna to happen."

"I don't think they're you're friend anymore!" Chrissie put her hand son her hips.

"But I though we were going to look for the Green Emerald! What if someone gets it before us?!" Mas' eyes widened.

"Well now that I think about it, he's right. Leaving them just so we can find a gem that doesn't have any powers yet is really selfish. Maybe Khamille, Hotspot, Aisha, or Jade can find the Emerald," Kid explained. "Even if the villain _does_ get it, he'll only have 1 and all of us together have 4, leaving 5 more to be discovered, and the 1 jewel no one knows about."

"Yeah," Mas put his hands to his chin.

"Flash is right," Menos moaned.

"Does he always try to be the "wise one"?" Cody pointed his thumb at him.

"You should've seen him when he turned me into the good side," Jinx rolled her eyes. Kid Flash beamed.

"What? I'm just doing the right thing."

"Good luck on your journey!" Lucius declared. Everyone saluted and waved to him.

"But where will you go? Aren't you going with us?" Colleen asked.

"No. If I _am_ able to bust out of here, then I have to go a different way," Lucius said, looking back. A crowd of people was heard coming from behind a building that wasn't too far away. "Don't ask any more questions and get outta here!"

The large team of heroes did as they were told and quickly ran to hide behind the wooden gate, disappearing into the thick fog.

"Are you sure Lucius can take care of himself, Grandpa?" Colleen looked up at her grandfather.

"I'm pretty sure he can. He's done incredible things before and even now at this age," he simply replied as he breathed heavily. "I'm never gotten into this much adventure since I was young!"

Be quiet! I hear footsteps!" Kid put his index finger to his lips. Emerging from the fog were Mumbo, Monkey King, Blackfire, StrikeMaster Ice, and the sky demon ready to go.

"Those 30 minutes went by super fast!" Mumbo said aloud.

"We should have made it 50," Monkey King rubbed his head and moaned.

"OK folks! We ready to go?!" Blackfire called. In the hands of the people were pitchforks, torches, lighters and everything that they had as weapons.

"They _are_ ready," Ice mumbled to her.

"Take us from this place right away, Mr. Monkey King sir! We already have enough proof from Michael here that dragons are a nuisance!" Wendell's fist was pumped into the air.

"YEAH!" Everyone else did the same.

"Well Lucius. Your plan to try and stop us was a fail!" Mumbo shook his head in mock disappointment. The only thing Lucius could do was make a low growl.

"I'm telling you all this is a big mistake!" he said, trying to break free of his prison.

"You got that right this whole thing is a mistake!" said Jinx from behind the villains.

"What?!"

"Get ready to be sent back to where you belong!" Cody joined in. Mas, Menos, Jinx, Kid Flash, Angus, Colleen, Chrissie, and the earth-bending teen all stood side by side blocking off the exit.

"Who are they?" Euclid pointed to the heroes.

"This will be good," Blackfire smirked, cracking her knuckled

"Colleen hon, why are you with these people?! They're the Teen Titans! They're evil!" Wendell sound like he was pleading.

"The same for Angus, Cody and Chrissie!" Jonathan added.

"We don't want to hurt you guys, but if we have to prove that these criminals are nothin' but trouble, so be it!" Colleen waved water from the fog around herself.

"The wool has been pulled over your eyes fellas, to see that they're really dangerous!" Angus added. "They were never here in The Valley until a few days ago!"

"That's not true!" Hsi Wu tried to lie, but Jonathan covered his mouth from saying anything else.

"Or is it?" Mas y Menos challenged.

"Do you even know where you're going?" Kid Flash said with disbelief.

"Of course we do! We goin' to Dragons' Stair! What makes you say that, mustard and ketchup man?" Ice laughed a little. Kid moved forward, but Jinx put her arm in front of him which stopped him.

"You don't know how to get there," Cody put his hands on his hips.

"Yes we do!" Blackfire argued. "It's um...behind the river... I think-or to the left!" Blackfire stuttered.

"You really wanted these fools to lead you to the dragons, Wendell? I doubt they even know what kind they are," Jinx rolled her eyes.

"Spiritual!" Mumbo exclaimed. "We _do_ know what kind of dragons they are."

"That's not the point. The point is that we need to get out of here as soon as we can, not to defeat the Dragon but for safety. I have a feeling we might not come back here," Lucius said from his cage.

"Whatever traitor!" a man threw an unlit torch at the old man. He ducked and the wood flew threw the bars.

"So we don't know where Dragons' Stair is, but we want to save you! To save you from the rat creatures coming here!" Monkey King said aloud before covering his mouth.

"Dude!" Michael face palmed.

"Shut your mouth!" Hsi Wu glared at him, but it was too late. Everyone had gasped, angrily staring at the king of pranking.

"What did you say about rat creatures!" a girl kicked Ice in the leg.

"Ow! Watch lil' girl!"

"Don't forget Senor Michael works with them!" Mas and Menos pointed at Michael. "He was just pretending to be attacked by the Dragon. In fact, the dragon guy was one of them!"

The looks changed from Monkey King to MC Cobra. Wendell, Euclid, Jonathan gave him looks of pure anger.

"So they _have_ been lying to us this whole time!" Euclid raged, his face turning into a tomato. He slammed his fist onto Lucius' cage, making it shake. "Were we blind or what?"

"Well duh!" Colleen smacked her forehead. "Now let's go and get you somewhere safe before it's too late!"

"Colleen rhymed!" Menos randomly said.

"I guess we have no other choice but to," Wendell nonchalantly shrugged. He clenched his fists and moved slowly towards Michael with hatred written on his face. "But first, let's give Michael and his little "friends" a goodbye ticket back to where they came from!"

A nervous MC Cobra backed up into Ice and Mumbo. The villains were all trying to escape the angry villagers from tearing them to pieces. Just when they thought they were all doomed, a bright, swirling portal appeared.

"FREEDOM!" Hsi Wu sprouted his wings and demon form. Everyone's heart stopped when they saw his true form.

"He's a demon!" Angus' eyes were wide.

"So he wasn't a little ki!" Cody whimpered.

"This is wack yo!" Ice ran into the portal without looking back. "I ain't never comin' back here!"

"They're cowards! I didn't have to knock their heads off after all!" Kid laughed. The portal disappeared with a flash and a bang, leaving the people with nothing to do.

"What do we do? The rat creatures are coming!" Jonathan held his aching head. "WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!"

"You won't die on our watch! There is still other people near here that we have to save from the nightmare sheep getting to them!" Angus said.

"Nightmare sheep?" Chrissie scratched her head.

"That's the old way for saying "rat creatures"," Jinx explained. "Delya and Aunti had told us about it."

"This way everyone!" Cody smiled. Since nobody had anything else to do, one by one the townspeople slowly and quietly walked through Barrelhaven's gates without looking back.

"Hey Lucius! Are you sure we should leave you behind?" Kid Flash said before closing the neighborhood gates.

"Don't worry about me, Flash. In all the years of serving Atheia, I've gotten myself in bigger trouble before. Go. We'll see each other soon," Lucius dismissed him. With a wave, the speedster closed the doors, making a slight boom! sound.

_That kid' will survive. With a wise mouth and a smart head, I'm sure I'll see him and his friends again_, Lucius nodded as he took a seat in jail, trying to think of a way to get out.

**A/N: Ugh, this chapter took so long I just wanted to wrap this chapter up so I could get to Drago and Delya's part! These 2 chapters might take longer to update since it's been complicated making the right scenes come together. You'd think it's easy, but it's quite hard for me.**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: I know I was such a liar in the last about updating Drago+Delya's chapter, but here it is.**

It was 3:25 pm. The sky was supposed to have clear skies but instead dark clouds covered the sky and warm fog lay low in the forests. Delya was now awake, lying face down in soft grass. She was still in her Chinese uniform. Mother Nature was looking very gray that day.

"What happened?" she wiped her eyes and sat up. Her curse of blindness only lightened a little. Delya could see figures, but she couldn't see their faces or anything a distance away.

"Finally! I was afraid you were a lying corpse!" a sarcastic, but serious voice said behind Delya.

_Not yet_, Delya thought nervously. "How long was I asleep for?"

"An hour or 2," Drago shrugged, looking at the sky. "It looks like it's going to rain soon," Delya felt Drago's hands under her armpits.

"I can stand up _myself, _ya know," she removed his warm hands.

"I thought you were blind."

"I am, but it's not as bad anymore," Delya wiped her sleepy eyes. "Why are you so impatient?"

"Why do _you_ ask so much questions?"

"Calm down Hothead. I was just asking," Delya put her hands up.

"You ask too **many** questions," Drago growled. "Let's get going while we have the chance."

"Hold on. Before we go anywhere, you must go into your human cover," Delya grabbed onto his forearm.

"No! I already did that once and I **didn't** enjoy it!"

"If you're in human form, no one will know it's you," Delya explained. "The more we argue, the more time we're wasting."

"Why should I listen to you?"

"We haven't gotten along the greatest, but we have to work together. This whole valley will be in danger if you don't take me to Aunti right away," Delya ordered, stomping her feet on the ground. Drago snorted smalls streams of fire from his nose and backed up.

"Fine," Drago said, closing his eyes and engulfed himself in fire. In a few seconds, a humanized Drago was in the spotlight.

"You look better when you don't have all those scales on," Delya nodded her head to one side. This made Drago blush a little.

"Once we get to your destination, I turn into my dragon form."

"Deal," Delya climbed up to sit on top of his shoulders.

"Why are you acting like a little kid?" Drago strained to keep Delya in balance.

"Calm down, crybaby. I only have until Blood Moon, so I'm making my days the best as I can! And I can't see very well, so you'll be my guide," Delya sheepishly smiled.

"Really?" Drago groaned.

"Are you gonna sit here and complain or are you going to walk on?" Delya chuckled in-between her sentence, then stopped to think. "Hey, we didn't get breakfast!"

"We didn't."

"Aww. There was no food around here, was there?" Delya moaned.

"Nope. Even if there was, I wouldn't give any to you because you're really irritating me," Drago lightly growled as he was beginning to walk.

"If you're going to be that way, fine then," Delya ended the argument, leaving the forest quiet once again.

_Maybe I shouldn't have said about my "few days to live". I don't want him asking questions about what happened with me and The Hooded One_, Delya sadly thought. It had hurt her stomach to say "The Hooded One" because it reminded her of Raina. Drago had similar thoughts.

_What exactly is going to happen on Blood Moon? Eh, maybe I should ask later_, Drago tried to get the memories of them in the past out of his head. This was now, and the demon dragon was sticking to it. A chill went down Delya's back, shaking up Drago a little bit.

"Is it the six sense thing?" Drago asked, but softer.

"No, my six sense won't work in The Valley. It's starting to get cold in the fog," Delya said as a drop of water dropped on her nose.

"It's pretty warm here," Drago's eyebrow was raised. He set down Delya off his shoulders.

"Hey! I was feeling comfortable up there!"

Drago ignored Delya's complains and felt her forehead with the back of his hand, then her cheeks.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Drago crossed his arms in front of his chest. "You're getting hot."

"You aren't my mother ya know," Delya chattered her teeth.

"Can we not talk about mothers?" Drago hid his clenched fists in his pockets.

"What do you mean? You're acting just like my mom, that's all I'm saying," Delya tried to explain, but Drago put his hand up in front of her face, making her stop.

"I don't want to hear that from you," Drago snapped. 3 rain drops fell on Drago's shoulders.

"What are you mad about? You had **parents** your whole life!" Delya rolled her eyes at Drago's excuses.

"You don't know my past."

"What do you have against mothers? Was she a human and ruined your life?" Delya smirked. Drago whirled around and grabbed Delya by both her arms, holding onto it tightly.

"Ow! You're hurting me!" She pleaded, trying to get away, but Drago's grip wouldn't move. The raindrops started to fall faster.

"Don't you **ever** talk about my mother being a human or me being a half demon again," Drago sincerely said. With every word, he gave Delya a hard shake. He shoved her back some and kept walking, making Delya nervous.

"Ouch," the demon girl muttered, touching the places where she was grabbed. It was starting to form little bruises. "I didn't mean it like that."

Drago sighed. "Yeah whatever."

"What did happen to your mother?" Delya walked faster to catch up to Drago. The rain had gotten to a point where it was hard to see anything.

"If you want to know what happened to my mother, you have to know about my past too," Drago said, feeling very uncomfortable. "I've never told anyone this."

"If you tell me something I don't know, I'll tell you something you don't know" Delya coughed. "Start the story."

"I was born in Brandenburg, Germany. My mother was a full, German demon and my father was Chinese as you know," Drago stuffed his hands in his pocket. "My life seemed calm then."

"Wait! You're German?!" Delya's eyes widened.

"I thought you knew that."

"No way!"

"Was meinen Sie? Ich bin natürlich deutsch!" Drago gained a serious look.

"What?"

"Of course I'm German, duh! As I was saying, my life was nice. I would've been in China if it wasn't for Lo Pei and the _Banishment Era_," Drago explained.

"The Banishment Era, where humans would start a rebellion and fight against the demons. During that time, my sisters got banished and my mother disappeared," Delya kicked at a rock on the ground. "I heard that Lo Pei was searching for Shendu."

"He wanted to stay there, but the demons in China were hard to trust. After fighting the growing rebellion my father moved to Europe, where my father found the right place to start a new life. That's when my mother, Astrid, came in. The only thing that was different about my mother was that she could turn into a human regularly so people wouldn't suspect her as a demon. Shendu didn't like that," Drago rolled his eyes saying his father's name.

"Is that why you're about the same size as a human, you have 4 fingers and a thumb and red pupils for eyes instead of the whole eye being red?" Delya moved her wet hair out the way. As the rain fell from the sky, Drago's hair wasn't standing straight up anymore. Delya's hair drooped over her eyes.

"Demons come in all shapes and sizes. You know Hsi Wu is shorter than me, don't you?"

"Oh yeah, that's true."

"The Banishment Era was over **300 centuries** as demons all over were being sent to the Demon Netherworld. My family was fine until one day, Lo Pei showed up at our doorstep. I think one of our neighbors told him our whereabouts because he, along with an army of humans showed up. It was us 3 against all of them. I was pretty sure we were going to lose until Mom used a spell that took us away from the battle, just Shendu and I. Astrid stayed there fighting for herself and us," Delya thought she saw a tear roll down Drago's face.

"She's not _dead_, right?" she began to place a hand on the demon dragons shoulder, but instead she put it by her side again.

"No. If she was dead, everyone would've heard. My _father_ was pretty sure she was dead. He got aggressive, saying it was my fault Mother had left us. It was mostly verbal insults, but there was some physical moments too," Drago said. He took off his wet jacket and shirt, showing some serious 6-pack abs. Delya turned away and blushed. The demon dragon didn't have to look to see that she was blushing.

"You're blushing because of my abs, right?" he smirked, showing off a little.

"I am not..."

"You see this bruise on my back?" Drago changed the subject. On the left side of Drago's back was a tan bruise the shape of a baseball. Delya gasped, holding her mouth.

"Shendu hurt you?" she touched the bruise. It felt and looked like a moon crater.

"The bruises he gave me healed within a week, but one time he did this. My back felt paralyzed for a month. Another time my father shoved me in a cold lake because I had badmouthed him. That's why I'm afraid of water so much. His anger turned me into a bad child. By now I thought this had gone away," Drago said, not putting on his clothes anymore. "Almost 5 years had passed after the Banishment Era had come what the German people had called it "Drache Murder", translated as "Dragon Murder"."

Delya didn't ask any questions, for she knew what the "Dragon Murder" was and remembered what her uncle had done.

"Why do you hate your uncle so much?" Drago turned to him.

"He took away my demon form," she looked at the ground and splashed a mud puddle. Drago's eyes widened.

_No _wonder_ she always has the appearance of a human_, Drago thought making a pitiful face .

"Your uncle was **horrible** to us dragon. Spiritual _and_ demon dragons were getting executed, imprisoned, tortured and everything. My dad knew it wasn't safe, so he had tried to make the perfect time portal spell for only _himself_ to get away. Luckily, my mom had taught me how to do a time portal spell but there was only enough for one person so I traveled a few years in the future," Drago accidentally stepped in a large puddle, splashing mud and water on himself.

"I **thought** you came from the future!" Delya again moved her wet bangs out from her face.

"Eh, time travel's confusing. Now tell me what happened back with The Hooded One," the demon dragon asked, stepping over a puddle.

"Why are you so eager to know?"

"I want to know why I have to drag you through the forest through the rain like this is a freakin' _rainforest_," Drago rolled his eyes. Delya took in some air and breathed in out slowly through her nose. "Remember Raina?"

"Who?"

"My sister Raina, remember? The one that liked you when we were kids?" Delya tried to force the memory through Drago's brain.

"Oh yeah! She used to follow me and stare at me _constantly_," Drago shivered. "She was a major stalker."

"She's The Hooded One."

"You're lying."

"If I was lying to you, then I wouldn't bring her up at all," Delya shook her head sadly. Drago held the back of his hair, looked up at the sky and muttered multiple German curses Delya couldn't hear or understand. He then felt Delya's cheeks and forehead once more.

"Are you sure your stalky sister Raina is The Hooded One?" Drago looked Delya straight the the face. She nodded quickly.

"You must be hallucinating."

"I am not! I actually saw her take off her hood and show her face! Because of her, I'm going to die on the night of Harvest Moon," 2 tears disguised themselves in the rain and fell down Delya's face.

"But it's impossible to hurt demons like us," Drago put a hand on Delya's shoulder.

"Remember how we saw Strike-Master Ice at Raina's lair before? She used his blood to put it in my tea," Delya stomped in the mud. Drago kept silent.

"Really?"

"There's going to be numerous amounts of symptoms before my demise," Delya crossed her arms in front of her chest and shivered.

"What about Anodroxcyn? That would cure you and I know exactly how to make it!" Drago snapped his fingers together but Delya quickly shook her head.

"Anodroxcyn is just a legend. Even if you _do_ get the cure, I'm a goner," the demon girl wiped her eyes.

"Jeez. I didn't know your situation was that bad. I thought you were faking," Drago grimaced. Delya opened her mouth but she bumped into a tree instead. Some leaves and a sharp object fell out and covered her.

"Ah! I think my nose is bleeding!" Delya touched her nose and felt for anything dripping. Drago looked also.

"Hmm...I don't see any blood," the dragon said, but his eyes weren't focused on that. His eyes darted over to an object that shined through the rain and was hidden under some fallen leaves. Cautiously, he knocked the leaves aside and gasped.

"Not this thing," Drago glared, throwing it at the ground. Delya stopped worrying about her nose to stare at the muddy gem.

"You found it! The Green Emerald!" Delya pinched his cheeks. He stood up, dropped the gem and walked away angrily.

"What's wrong, Grumpy?" she used the tree to help her get up. He only grunted.

"You wanna know?" he said, but didn't turn around.

"Well sure."

Drago turned around and walked toward Delya. She cowered, afraid that he would hurt her again. Instead, he took the gem from Delya's hand and squeezed it with as much enough strength as he could. A green flash went up and down Drago's half-naked body. When it was done flashing, he tossed it back to Delya.

"What does it do?" she asked with an innocent voice. He turned around and pointed to his back. The tan-colored bruise was gone.

"It cured you," Delya went up to touch it, but Drago turned around and lightly grabbed it.

"The Green Emerald gives the power of invincibility and healing," he replied. "The reason why I don't like the gem is because Lo Pei used this to defeat my family. The Green Emerald was originally made for evil purposes, for it was created by demons and dark chi wizards during the Banishment Era. The spiritual dragons and their human followers took it from us and it was lost forever. We didn't even get a chance to activate it. The spiritual dragons took the 9 gems, gave them powers and sent it to the 4 corners of this valley, because they knew we wouldn't find it there. The fabled 10th one they made themselves just in case evil would take the other 9," Drago explained with an annoyed tone to his voice. "My dad was entitled to hold the Green Emerald."

"Yeah, but he has the Dog and Horse talisman," Delya pointed out.

"This was **before** he had the talismans. After the jewels were taken, my father went out to find the 12 talismans there after, " Drago cupped his chin to his chin. "I had forgotten about those little, magical stones until you brought it up."

"I don't believe a single word you say," Delya crossed her arms in front of her chest and turned her head away from him.

"Ask your Aunti. She'll believe me, even though she won't want to," Drago said, stuffing the Green Emerald in his pants pocket. 2 shadows moved through the bushed beside Delya. She jumped, tripped and fell face first into the muddy puddle. Drago chuckled.

"Are you okay?" he asked, but obviously didn't mean it. The shadows moved again, shaking up more bushes.

"What was that?" he stopped laughing. It seemed like the dark shadows were circling the 2 demons. Drago grabbed Delya's hand and helped her up. Delya shivered some more and got on her hands and knees.

"Delya, you have a fever. We need to find some shade for you to hide under," Drago picked her up bridal style.

"Don't pick me up like that!" she squealed.

"Why not?"

"Because...just because," Delya crossed his arms in front of her chest. Drago smirked.

"You hate it when I pick you up like this, don't you?" he softly laughed. Even though Delya didn't want to smile, she did anyway.

"Whatever Drago. You **really** get on my nerves sometimes," she smiled. Drago set Delya down. He didn't pay any attention to her.

"Looks like we have guests," Drago said, trying to make his light his fists with fire, but it fizzled. That's when the shadows came out, and it was none other than rat creatures.

"SSSSSSSSSSS," they hissed.

"I forgot about the rain," he slapped his forehead.

"You still have your fists, genius," Delya rolled her eyes. Drago ignored Delya and put his back on hers.

"Well well well. 2 demons on the loose in the middle of this _rainforest_," a brown one said, stepping closer to Delya. She couldn't see it clearly, but she could feel it's breath coming closer.

"You need a breath mint," she tried to wave the breath from her nostrils. Suddenly, her stomach began to churn and ache as the rat creature began to come closer.

"Oh, I don't feel so good anymore," she clutched her stomach and bowed to one knee.

"Now?" Drago groaned, but made no effort to help her.

"I'm going blind again," she touched her face and her eyes. Instead of seeing fog, Delya again saw darkness.

"The Hooded One is expecting you," a smaller rat creature said as he and his comrades circled around Delya and Drago like a hawk.

"The Hooded One's _not_ going to get me. Not by a long shot," Delya said, clenching her fists.

"Where's Princess Noriah and the retired magic consultant?!" one blurted out.

"The retired magic consultant?" Drago repeated in Delya's ear.

"Everyone's supposed to call her Eva, but because she was older than everyone else they liked to call her "Aunti"."

"Let us **eat** them!" another rat creature hissed, opening his mouth. Drago punched him in the teeth, breaking a couple. He then grabbed the rat creatures head and slammed it into the one next to him. He then took his jacket and shirt and threw them on 2 other rat creatures' heads.

"Hey! Who turned off the lights?" he said, trying to take it off him.

"Yowch! My head! My beautiful head!" he cried, holding it in pain. Drago grabbed Delya by her waist, threw her on his shoulder, and sprinted past the rat creatures. Delya blushed again, feeling Drago's warm hands.

"You got them?" Delya said, feeling against Drago's wet, bare back.

"Yeah, but not for long."

Soon after Drago finished his sentence, the "nightmare sheep" recovered from their injuries and ran after them.

"What do we do?" Delya called. Drago didn't get to answer because a rat creature jumped on Drago's chest. Delya slid on the mud and hit her head against a tree. It seemed like she was on the verge of unconsciousness.

"...My head," Delya groaned. She felt too dizzy to do anything about it. Ahead of her, another rat creature attacked Drago, but he shoved it off and bashed its head in with his knee. With that, Delya slipped into a deep sleep.

**A/N: * = German for "What do you mean? Of course I'm German!"**

*** = German for "Dragon Murder."**

**I didn't start in the morning where the day had begun, but I thought that would take forever to get in the afternoon.  
**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: In the previous chapter, Drago said "300 centuries" when it was supposed to say "300 years or 3 centuries to shorten it". In the beginning of this chapter, it will be rated T for some cursing.  
**

**-**_Flashback**-**_

_A small demon flew high into the clouds on a sunny spring day in China. No one could see Kian's swift shadow hiding behind the clouds from time to time. On his belt was a small bronze cup that shone dimly in the sun. Dried dark blue-colored liquid was dried onto the sides of the cup. The pollen from the flowers on the Earth stuck to Kian's wings, but he didn't care. Kian was flying too quickly to care about anything but what he had to deliver._

_Kian was a very small demon, a little taller than Hsi Wu's height but they weren't related. His skin was light grey and he had little spikes on his arms. He didn't have a tail, which was easy to distinguish between Kian and the sky demon. Kian's had bird-like feet with sharp ivory talons for nails. Whenever he was in the sky, he moved very quickly like a showdown, whether he meant to or not. Kian loved doing this occasionally, but today wasn't as interesting._

_"Watch where you're going!" the demon he bumped into growled._

_"Sorry!" Kia hastily apologized as he looked up. You couldn't see the face, but you could see 2 demon red eyes glaring down at Kian. _

_"Ah, it's only you Aria," the small demon wiped his brow. Aria smirked and chuckled a little._

_"Course it is! You keep coming out of nowhere!" Kian rubbed his head and stared up at what was above him. Her skin was red and she had a slight British tone. She was very tall, had large muscles on every muscle possible and had little horns pointing sideways like a bull. Aria's tail was long and skinny with feathers at the end._

_"Hey...aren't you supposed to be with Leviathan?" she raised her eyebrow. Her tail wagged swiftly behind her._

_"That's the thing..."_

_"And you almost made me drop my gift for Delilah II and her kid. Seriously Kian, you need to watch where you're going," the present sat at Aria's hip._

_"You have a present?" now it was Kian's turn to raise his eyebrow._

_"Duh! Saki just gave birth and suffered so much doin' that! You need some respect for a demons around here, especially the female ones!" Aria rolled her eyes. "You act like your doppelganger Hsi Wu!"_

_"I do not!" Even though Kian shared a very close resemblance to Hsi Wu, he hated how everyone compared the both of them._

_"Maybe not every time, but you _do_ act like him."_

_"I do **not**!"_

_"You do patronize women quite a lot," Aria countered._

_"I'm ignoring you on that subject. I didn't even know about Saki giving birth 'till Leviathan told me. I have a present, but it's bad. That's all I have to say," Kian patted his unwrapped gift on the side of his belt also._

_"Care to tell me?"_

_"Once we get inside. I don't feel like explaining myself more than once," Kian perched himself on Aria's right shoulder. His stomach squeezed itself from the inside as he spoke, for he knew what was going to happen._

_"How bad is it?"_

_"Too bad for words alone."_

_"And another thing that I find weird is that you have a stained cup for a present, and that's Leviathan's favorite cup to drink from. It's as if you're mocking Leviathan's family," Aria clucked her tongue. The winged demon ignored her. __From that time on, the 2 demons kept quiet as they entered a small building that looked like a one-story house. On the inside it looked very elegant, as if the people living inside were kings and/or queens._

_"This place is nice," Aria nodded her head, taking a mental note of what looked pretty and what looked not so pretty._

_"I heard the child is a girl," Kian said. To his left a door was left slightly open, but it was enough to see what was inside. There was a king-sized bed and a demon the same size as Aria lying in it. There was a white blanket and something slightly moving inside. __Kia approvingly smiled. _

_"You're okay," Aria took a big step inside the large room._

_"Yes, but I can't say it was easy," Netsakyah softly laughed. "Please, come in. It's been a while since I've had company aside from those damn excuses for human nurses that were here a while ago."_

_"What's the child's name?" Aria stepped up to see what _

_"My fellow demons say hello to my Delilah Amesthira Vaudeville, but an easier name to call her would be Delya," the mother partly unwrapped the bundle, showing a little Delya with her right hand inside her mouth. The demon baby girl had a dark red colored skin tone, just like the mother. There was a little lock of hair that was black and partly yellow. The ears were pointy and her eyes turned a deep, but beautiful purple. The most noticeable parts of Delya was the little star birthmark on her left cheek and the little dimples._

_"Delya is such a cutie. Especially with that star birthmark and dimples on her cheek," Aria playfully pinched it. Delya laughed and moved away from Aria's hands and laughed a little._

It almost breaks my heart to tell Netsakyah the bad news_, Kian gulped. _

_"So, what are you doing here? I thought I supposed to be alone here for a couple of days," Netsakyah frowned slightly. Kian and Aria gulped._

_"C'mon guys spit it out. And where are my gifts for myself and the baby?"_

_"Did you not bring one?" Saki's expression was blank. Aria bit her lip._

_"If that it not it, then tell me whatever is the matter. Don't just stand there"_

_"Your husband Leviathan...something happened," Kian looked up. Saki's face turned dim._

_"What? Is he sick?"_

_"No...he...he's dead. He died just recently," Kian looked up. Aria gasped and gazed outside. She didn't realize how beautiful it looked outside because of the news. Kian unclipped the stained bronze cup from his belt and set it on a table in front of Netsakyah. She still said nothing._

_"I'm sorry. I...I just thought if I brought this to you you would know."_

_What looked like 2 tears fell down Saki's cheeks, but it seemed like she was hiding her sorrow well._

_"I bet you it was Lo Pei who had done this. He was probably the one who used his own blood to disguise it in Leviathan's drink. It still _is_ the Banishment Era," Aria turned around half way. She turned around to leave the comfy house altogether. Delya whimpered and started to cry, as if she had heard the bad news of her father's death. The new mother put a hand to her mouth._

_"Kian and Aria, take Delya to her room. It's naptime for her," she muttered as she picked her baby and gave it to the winged demon._

_"Saki, we're sorry," Kian said as Delya cries got louder. "Maybe one day you can remarry." Kian took this as his leave and walked away, his walk getting slower every step of the way. Saki did not hear him because she was replaying certain words of the news in her head._

_I bet Lo Pei did this...d__ied recently...blood poisoning..._

_The tears finally kicked into Saki's system as she wept. Instead of a few tears, what seemed like a river flow of tears fell down the demons's face. It almost looked like she was sweating heavily from her eyes._

_"Leviathan is dead. He's actually dead because of that fucking warrior that had started this whole damn Banishment thing! Lo Pei ruined everything and this family and I am sure I will make him suffer!" Saki growled as she reached to her left to a nearby drawer. She opened it and moved her hand around in circles for what seemed like forever. Finally, she picked up what looked like a shiny lightning-rod shaped dagger and pulled it out of its sheath._

I guess if you want a job done, you have to do it yourself_, Saki thought as she began to rise up out of her bed._

_-Flashback ends-_

"Is she awake yet?" a voice asked with a nervous tone.

"Yeah. Is she awake yet? She's been knocked out for quite a while" a dry, sarcastic voice asked the same question.

"I think she's coming to," a deeper voice answered. Delya's eyes slowly opened one by one to find 5 pair of different but blurry colored eyes staring back at her.

"Rise and shine, my Delya," a welcoming voice said.

"Where am I?" she groaned, touching her head. What felt like paper bandages was wrapped around Delya's head, almost covering it.

"Do not touch it," an aged hand grabbed Delya's. She softly pulled away as the blurriness in her eyes cleared. Jackie, Uncle, Raven, Aunti, and Captain Black all stared down at the demon in a worried state.

"Welcome to Old Man's Cave, where you are currently resting right now. It's like a hotel," Uncle shrugged. "This place is very good to practice good chi magic spells."

"Ow my head," a massive headache was coming on in Delya's brain.

"You are alright?" Jackie smiled a little. Delya struggled to do the same.

"It hurts so much..."

Raven put her hand over Delya's head, and almost immediately a dark glow covered her eyes. Within a few seconds, Raven took off her hand and hid it in her cloak.

"Oh! Thanks a lot! I feel much better," Delya sat up. Jackie Captain Black, and especially Aunti were all in different attires. Captain Black had a black and green Chinese wear and Jackie had something similar to that only it was all blue.

Aunti was a totally different story, because for her it was like everything she had on changed. Some of her hair was put up in a little ponytail and part of it was straightened down, leaving her long bangs draping in front of her face. Aunti's dress was long and white with ruffles at the top. She had a lavender corset that snugly wrapped around her waist. The elder's earrings were also a pretty pearl lavender. Around the Aunti's neck was a small pink bag and a white necklace with another lavender pearl hanging from it. Aunti's had a hairband with a nice white rose on top. The thing that Delya found unusual the most was Aunti had make-up, which she had never worn ever.

"I am glad you are alive," Aunti gave Delya a hug. The demon was shocked.

"Um sure...I guess I'm glad you're alive too. I thought you had gotten lost and the bad guys had taken you away," her eyes got watery.

"No. I just went to get some more people, as you see here."

"Captain Black, what are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be at the substitute Section 13?" Delya raised her eyebrow. The bald man smiled grandly.

"And I would still be there if it wasn't for Aunti. She thought it would be a good idea to bring me and some of the agents here. Since magic can't defeat magic, Section 13 can slow it down. We need all the help we can get to fight The Locust," the captain raised his fist.

"Aunti was the one who saved most of us, including Raven, Uncle and myself," Jackie patted Delya's sore back, which made her wince. "It's like Aunti was trained for this war to come sooner or later."

"I understood that but why did she change clothes? It looks uncomfortable for Aunti to wear something that's not brown, red, black, or something of dark colors," Delya turned to her elder guardian. She nodded her head.

"First of all, my old clothes got dirty from the traveling and not washing, so this was the only thing I could change into. It looks pretty no?" Aunti twirled around. The dress flowed up in the air, making Aunti look like a spining umbrella.

"I guess so. How did I get here in the 1st place? First, I was stuck in the rainforest with Drago leading and then the next thing I knew I was knocked into a tree."

Aunti's mouth formed a thin line when Delya finished her sentence. "I noticed that. the question is what were you doing with that Drago anyway?" She put her hands on her lips.

"Before I was blind because of some stuff that had happened and I can't remember exactly what, so I told Drago to bring me here. Where did he go anyway? I thought he would be here with me...," Delya scratched her head and looked around.

"He didn't want to come in the room with us," Capt. Black grunted. "We never needed him with us anyway."

"But I _have_ to talk to him!" Delya argued.

"What you need is food and a bath. The stars are beginning to come out and everyone at this camp is asleep," Raven deadpanned. Delya threw the blanket that had covered her onto the floor.

"What I need isn't important anymore," she pushed past Jackie and stormed out the door. Aunti dropped her things and running after her.

"Is she this stubborn?" Jackie raised his eyebrow and Captain Black put his hands on his hips.

"If she means to do something, yes," Aunti rolled her eyes and closed the doors after herself. To the right, Delya was a good distance away as she turned a corner.

"Delya, wait for me! We need to talk about this," Aunti fast-walked. Her so-called "niece" kept walking.

"Delilah, get back here!" Aunti's voice echoed.

"What?" Delya turned around. Aunti had to get on her hands and knees before she could say anything, for she was walking so fast.

"Why don't you want me to talk to Drago? You're acting as if he's going to kidnap me again. I hope Drago doesn't change his mind," Delya put her hands on her hips. "And I said _not_ to call me by my real name, remember?"

"Then you can explain to me why you want to talk to **Drago, **the son of Shendu? The one who had hurt you many times before? The demon dragon who had wanted you to become his girlfriend when he was about to take over the world with the 8 demon powers?" Aunti wheezed. Delya rolled her eyes at that.

"He's brainwashed you, hasn't he? You are becoming to like him and now you are defending him?" Aunti put her hands on her hips.

"That's not true!" Delya glared at Aunti. Her streaks in her hair turned.

"Then what is true? The last time I saw you, you were bruised, bloody, and cut from Kingdok's ambush. Now you are working with Drago, the one person in this Earth I despise the most! Who knows, he's probably going to make you depressed and make you cry! I am only trying to protect you from any incoming danger," Aunti put her hand on Delya's arm.

"I know you are, but I'm not the stupid girl who falls in love with her enemy. I can take care of myself," Delya answered as she grabbed a door handle. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get some rest. Raven's right: it's way too late to be up."

"Just promoise me if you have anything that troubles you, I will drop everything to solve your probelm," Aunti gave a tight hug around Delya's waist (because of her height). Delya hugged and rubbed around her head. She opened the door and was about to close it behind her. "G'night, Aunti. Love you."

"Love you too."

The door quietly shut in front of Aunti quietly. She knew she couldn't change her niece's mind to whatever she had decided.

"Whatever that has happened while Delya was away, I must find out tomorrow," Aunti said, taking a good look at the door before moving on to her room.

* * *

After everything Delya had experienced, she just could not sleep. She was all set for bed with her favorite PJ's on, a much needed bath, and some tasty food but the female demon could not close her eyes. First, a weird dream had shown up with Delya's mother, now Aunti is very distrustful of Drago, who had saved her from the rat creature attack. Now Delya doesn't blame her but now Drago was starting to seem more like a friend than an enemy.

"He probably left for The Hooded One. Captain Black did say he left," Delya sat on a large windowsill and sadly looked outside. There were many stars outside that night and the moon looked bigger than before.

"Ohh, my stomach hurts just looking at it," Delya held her stomach in a sick manner.

"Do you have to keep worrying about that?" a demonic voice deadpanned. In front of Delya in the darkness, Drago was also sitting on the windowsill. His hands were behind his head and his legs were propped up in a relaxing position.

"And I have every reason to. Where were you anyway? I thought you had gone back to your villain friends already?" Delya raised her eyebrow.

"Nah, not yet. I'll leave before morning. If I stay any longer, The Hooded One will think I'm a traitor," Drago said. "Besides, I have the perfect lie to tell your sister. "It'll be like "The reason why I went with your older sister is because I wanted to find out where she would hide at so we can kidnap you when the time is right"."

"So you want to betray me?" Delya had an unconvincing look on her face.

"It's the only way ourselves will be saved from Raina's wrath!" Drago emphasized. Delya turned to look back at the nighgt sky.

"Sure. Do whatever. Every minute that goes by, I feel like I'm getting weaker and weaker. Tomorrow morning, I'll be too tired to get out of bed," Delya explained.

"Worrying will just weaken you more, especially as the humans say. Every time you worry, a gray hair will grow on your head," Drago chuckled, as did Delya.

"You have better things to do than worry about what's going to happen on Blood Moon, which is only a few days away."

"That's not it. The thing that worries me most is that my sister of all people is behind everything," Delya sighed.

"This is one of the things I dislike about you. If something were to happen to you or someone you care for, even if it was months away you'll freak out about. You never look at the positive side," the son of Shendu blurted out. "You have your friends to save you, don't you?"

"Yeah but-!"

"**So what's the problem**?" Drago's temper was rising. Delya bit her lip before she spoke, hoping no to make him angrier than he already is.

"You don't understand. If the world was about to end in 2 months, you would do anything to rule the world before then. I feel like I have a terminal cancer," Delya groaned. "While I was knocked out, I had a weird dream."

"Like what?"

"When I was born, my father died of blood poisoning. It was still the Banishment Era and Lo Pei was behind it all. Some messengers told my mother and when they left, she cried and cursed some. She stopped immediately, grabbed a weapon and said "If you want to do something, you have to do it yourself"."

"I don't know what to say except for I'm sorry. I wish my father was deceased...," Drago trailed off, leaving the small room quiet.

"I'm going to miss you," from out of nowhere Delya hugs Drago from the side. Her hair shone a river blue in the moonlight. "I can't believe I said that."

Drago embraces Delya from her sides and rubs her back and up and down slowly. The humanoid dragon then cups his fellow demon's chin and pulls her lips to his own. Delya let him this time, forgiving the last horrible kiss he made (which she doesn't like to think about anymore). This time, the kiss felt right and warm, as if Delya belonged with him. The only thing is stopping Delya is Aunti, Jackie, and the rest of her friends. She knew she couldn't be with Drago, but sharing one kiss wouldn't harm anyone. When Delya let go her hair flashed yellow, which would appear a lighter yellow.

"You know I can't be with you...just because of a kiss," Delya slightly frowned.

"Yeah, I know. My father would never allow it, as would your Aunti and Chan's friends. But one little kiss couldn't hurt? No one is here with us at the moment," Drago said Delya's thought aloud. "You best get some sleep. You'll need it for tomorrow."

"Why?"

"Even though I won't be here tomorrow, watch. Your Aunti and Chan and his old man are going to make you train," Drago silently laughed as Delya snuggled got into her bed and under her covers. Drago set his foot upon the window. "By the way, when will I see you again?"

Drago didn't move, but stared at the night sky in silence. To his perspective, the stars looked like demons eyes, only they were white.

"I will be back before the night of Blood Moon. I promise," Drago said, reaching over to touch her face. Drago's human hands were large, but warm and soft. In only a matter of seconds, Drago let go of Delya's cheek and jumped out the window like a dark shadow.

"Drago's going to break his promise," Delya yawned, turning over in her bed. "But he'll do anything to get Anodroxcyn and prevent myself from dying, because he cares so much."

**A/N: The next chapters will have scenes switch back and forth between the teams of Delya's, Khamille's, and Jinx's.**


	8. Chapter 8

Delya cracked her eyelids open one by one. The sun's rays had gotten into her eyes and the sounds of birds were chirping outside her room. To her, it sounded like just another morning.

"The sound of birds and seeing the sun in my eyes is nice, but later when I wake up at 12:00, I wouldn't hear it anymore," Delya said to herself as she planted her face back into her pillow. Suddenly, the sound of metal hitting metal rang out from one side to the other side of Delya's ears. She cringed at the painful noise.

_Who is up at this hour?_ Delya groaned, throwing a pillow over her head. That didn't help because the noise only got louder.

"This reminds me of the time when Drago did this to wake me up," the female demon recalled. "I was so mad at him for that."

"It is time for training! I want everyone up and out of bed!" what sounded like Aunti's voice called out through the hallways.

"Aw, just 5 more minutes...," Delya sleepily groaned. She didn't even get a chance to close her eyes, for Aunti marched through the door.

"Delilah, get up! It is time to get up! From there you'll take a bath, brush teeth, eat and start training," the elder lady exclaimed with a wide grin on her face.

"Come back at 12:00 Aunti. I usually wake up around that time," Delya groaned.

"Not while you are here. If The Hooded One and his evil forces were to come through your bedroom right now, you would've been captured or worse," Aunti sat on Delya's bed.

"How long have you been doing this?"

"For as long as people have been here. Don't make me rip the comforter from this bed," Aunti warned.

"But it's too early!" Delya whined into her pillow.

"The forces of darkness always throw people off whenever they attack," Aunti said factually. Delya threw off her covers and sat up, struggling to make the straightest and most awake face to show Aunti. "Alright, alright. Keep your skirt on," Delya rubbed her eyes.

"Good and when I return in 5 minutes, you must still be up and dressed in this garment I made for you while we were separated," Aunti threw Delya what had looked like an extra-large shoebox with neatly folded clothes inside. When Delya took them out, there was a small, black vest with a red tank top. There was also black shorts that stopped to the knee with a red belt tied nicely around the waist. Red flats tucked neatly under everything. Delya raised her eyebrow as she inspected her clothes. It was similar to the clothes she would normally wear, but looked like it was made for training.

"I thought it looked cute matching your medallion," Aunti beamed. Delya looked a quick glance at her necklace that lay on a nearby nightstand before pack her clothes back in the box.

"Thanks."

"I will fill you in on what has happened as I stayed here," Aunti stood up and moved to the door. She stopped and turned around. "Where'd Drago go?"

"He left yesterday night," Delya said, stretching her sore arms. Aunti growled lightly hearing that.

"Ah! I knew he was a bad dragon!" she scratched her flat-ironed hair. Delya raised her eyebrow and wore a blank expression on her face.

"What do you mean?"

"What do _you_ think? The only reason he was being nice to you was because he was secretly working for The Hooded One! He would follow you and go back to his boss to tell you where we were taking refuge out! Now they are going to ambush us and it's all your fault!"

"Me? How is this my fault? Drago would never do that to me! We may have had our differences back then, but we've made a clean slate. Drago wouldn't sell me out like that," Delya's loud voice died down. She stared shamefully at the floor as she grabbed her black armbands, along with her golden ones. "At least I think do."

"That what he wants you to think. I have went down the same road you have before, Delya and it wasn't pretty. This is exactly why I don't get married or even why I don't trust men!"

"Then what's the point in flirting with Uncle?! And don't call me by my real name!" Delya snapped, marching out of her room in her pajamas. Aunti didn't even try to follow her as she did yesterday.

"She is in more trouble than I had expected," Aunti shook her head pitifully.

* * *

"If you want information, you're going to have to get it from my brain," Drago smirked. As he had suspected, when Drago returned to Raina's lair the previous night, he was considered a traitor and put in a prison T.H.O. had made. By seeing the looks on her face, she was unhappy and getting impatient by the minute.

"Don't bother lying to me, dragon boy! I know you were hanging out with my sister! You smell like her," T.H.O. leaned in closer to smell Delya's jasmine scent on his shirt.

"I didn't say I wasn't. I said I'm not telling you anything that happened yesterday!" the dragon demon crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"Hmmph, in a matter of time, you'll talk. You're lucky I'm deciding not to torture you. Right now, I have important matters than worrying about some half-demon," Raina waved him off and make a magical window with a wave of her scythe. The window showed Jade, Hotspot (in human form), Khamille, and Aisha walking through the forest together.

"Wait...if you can do that then you should have already known about your sister and I," Drago rolled his eyes. "And I'm not a half-demon."

"For your information, there are some parts of The Valley where I can't reach, since this place is overflowing with good magic. That probably explains why Delya is unable to use some of her powers," The Hooded One noted the last part to himself.

Delya never told me that, Drago thought to himself. As The Hooded One was watching into the portal, Drago turned around and sat down in his cell, his back faced Raina. From his jacket, he pulled out a vial filled with water, pieces of grass, a pine-cone, a rabbit's foot, and a bear claw.

"Now for a demons sample of blood," Drago mentioned quietly. Without wasting a second, he dug one of his sharp dragon nails into her arm and made a scratch into his arm. A drop of blood fell into another glass vial Drago held.

"So how long will it be before the night of Blood Moon?" Drago asked aloud. His voice echoed against the walls of The Hooded One's room.

"Blood Moon does not concern you."

"It _does_ concern me when Delya is going to die on that night," Drago clenched his fists together. Raina chuckled and shook her head.

"So...my sister told you about her condition, did she?" she turned to Drago. If it wasn't for the cell, there was a good chance he would burn Raina alive right then.

"She did and that makes you a traitor!" the son of Shendu pointed at her.

"Since when do you know about betrayal?"

"My father betrayed me once when I was on my quest to rule the world. He even betrayed when I was a child."

"Oh really? But you did the same thing when you escaped Section 13, no? Your father told me and things tell me that he still wasn't happy about that," T.H.O. smirked then frowned heavily. "You did the same thing to me as a child."

"Um, the reason why I did that was because you kept following me and wouldn't leave me alone, if I may recall. What, did you forget that major part of the whole thing?" Drago mocked Raina.

"_Stop arguing both of you! You're lucky I don't have a brain or else I'd be having a major headache_," said The Locust, who had finally stepped in.

"Whatever..."

"_It won't be whatever when we find Delilah and Princess Noriah and bring them in. Our plan will succeed, so don't mind the dragon. He will soon pay for his treachery_," The Locust whispered in The Hooded One's ear for her to calm down. This took a while for her to settle.

_Not if I save her first_, Drago thought with determination on his mind as he dipped the grass blade into the vial filled with blood.

* * *

Khamille, Hotspot, Jade, and Aisha were all together walking through the forest. They have been walking since dawn. Jade and Aisha seemed energetic, Hotspot was trying to lead the group (since he was the only boy), and Khamille decided not to say anything. She had been thinking about some things.

_Trust no one. That's _my_ motto..._

_Don't you see little orphan? The sun doesn't care if the rat creatures ate your mommy and daddy. It will do its job as it has done in the past, whether you and I are here or not..._

Those 2 quotes from the extra-large mountain lion ran over and over again in Khamille's head. Speaking of which, it still hurt from time to time because of the fall from the ledge on the Eastern Mountains.

"I'm sooo tired. Can we rest?" Aisha whined.

"We could rest if you stop whining. You've been doing that for the past few hours," Jade glared at Aisha.

"And why do you keep _yelling_ at me?! Of everything everyone else does, you always have to pick on me? Is it because of Bartleby? Wait not it's not because you were mad at me before that," Aisha grumbled, kicking a pebble. "You were never this angry before."

"Maybe it's because of Rock Jaw. Rock Jaw made everyone mad," Hotspot helplessly shrugged. "Even me."

Jade and Aisha were too busy staring each other down to acknowledge him.

"As long as I stay as far away from Aisha as I can, I'm fine," Jade stormed off ahead of the rest of the group.

"Same here," Aisha turned her head up to the sky, only to bump into a tree in the process.

"Ow!"

Suddenly, a pine-cone hit Aisha in the same spot she bumped into the tree.

"Hey, what gives?!" Aisha rubbed it. With the Purple Amethyst in her left hand, pine-cones from the trees floated up and were flying at Khamille and Hotspot now.

"Jade, what's wrong with you? What happened to your spunky self? The adventurous side, not the mean and rude one?!" Hotspot asked as he dodged a pine-cone. He did a flip and used his fire power to hit two pine-cones, making little explosions. With Aisha holding the Red Ruby, rocks and pieces of Earth rose from the ground and shot themselves at Jade.

"Looks like it's just you and me," Jade cackled evilly. Khamille and Hotspot were behind the trunk of a large tree, forming a plan.

"OK. You will fly above Jade as she attacks Aisha and I will come in from behind and tackle her down. Then you will come and tackle her down from above and take away the Purple Amethyst," Hotspot said, making the plan in the dirt for Khamille to see.

"Isn't this a little too harsh? Jade's our friend," the young super-heroine worried.

"But it's obvious something evil is taking her over," Hotspot explained as a pine-cone landed on his head. He rubbed it and continued to talk. "Plus, I'm getting tired of those 2 fight. It makes me wonder why Delya's whatchamacallit put me with a bunch of girls."

"What's wrong with girls?" Khamille crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"I dunno. It's just that girls get into a lot more drama than boys do."

The Princess was about to retaliate but soon stopped as Hotspot put his finger up to her lips.

"Wait, do you hear that?" he asked as he peaked out from behind the tree trunk. A team of insects swarmed around Jade and Aisha. The only thing you can see from them was the girls feet, but you could hear their cries for help.

"Help!"

"The bugs are getting into my mouth! Yuck! Pa-tooey!" Aisha cried from the swarm. Hotspot fired up and shots blasts of fire into the swarm. All the bugs had to do was let the fireballs pass through as they opened up 2 holes. The holes close again, leaving the flying insects unharmed.

"Okay, bad plan," the fiery teen said. Khamille pulled out a silver medallion from under her shirt.

_I never thought I would actually fight some bugs. Maybe dwarves, but not bugs_, she thought as she snapped it off.

"You nasty bugs, go away!" Khamille grunted and threw the necklace at the locusts. Instantly, there was another POW!. The wounded grasshoppers flew dizzily around for a short second before flying straight up into the air and disappearing into the trees.

"That was awesome Khamille!" Hotspot laughed a little and softly punched Khamille in the arm. Khamille blushed.

"It was nothing."

"Ew! I need to brush my tongue, like, 40 times to get the bug juice out! That was disgusting!" Aisha squealed with wiping her tongue on her arm.

"Jade, are you alright?" Hotspot picked Jade up and dusted her off.

"What happened? Did the grasshoppers hurt you?" Khamille bent over. Jade was too busy feeling around her sides, as if she were hoping something would be in her pocket.

"Oh no!"

"Oh no" what?" Aisha stopped wiping her tongue along her arm.

"The Purple Amethyst is gone!" Jade said with a tone of anger. "I just had it in my hand too!"

"Yeah, you just had it and used it to attack us," Hotspot rolled his eyes.

"Hunh?"

"Don't you remember? You had an attitude with Aisha, you were throwing pine-cones..."

"Tch! I'd never do that to you guys. You're the only friends I have. What do you think I am, crazy?" Jade waved off the thought.

"We are seriously considering the "crazy" part. Is it just me, or did you hit her head?" Aisha put her hands on her hips. Jade touched her head, feeling for any bumps.

"Well, no. I didn't fall on my head."

"No. She still remembers who she is," Khamille doubted the thought. "Maybe the locusts took your memory or something."

"You're Aisha, Khamille aka Princess Noriah, and Hotspot. I still have my memory," Jade nodded.

"Don't call me a Princess," Khamille moaned.

"Nah. Jade remembers her holding Amethyst. I think The Locust took it," Hotspot put a hand on his chin.

"That's not possible. I'm pretty sure The Locust doesn't send out "bugs" to do all of his bidding," Aisha almost doubled over.

"No, think about it. First, the grasshoppers followed us to the Eastern Mountains, then Kingdok comes out of nowhere and disappears through "dreams", now this? I think we're being followed. You still have the Ruby, right?" Hotspot turned to Aisha. She felt around her sides also.

"You're being skeptical abut this magic business, ya know?" Aisha said, doing as his friend asked.

"He does have a point about the Kingdok thing. Maybe this is all just a dream. Later on, it might be in Jade's pocket," Khamille weakly suggested. Jade (who listened to the conversation the whole time) shrugged.

"Aw man! Not me too! The Red Ruby is gone!" Aisha shrieked. "The whole time I held onto it! Not fair!"

"So The Locust took 2 of my mom's gems?!" Khamille held her head pitifully. "If she was still alive, she wouldn't be happy to hear that."

"Just kidding! That red jewel's right here," Aisha took it out of her pocket. "But seriously, I was practically holding onto it for my life."

"Don't do that anymore," Hotspot scolded as he followed Jade's path.

"Aw c'mon. You hafta admit that my prank was pretty funny," she nudged Khamille playfully.

"Funny for you but not for us," Khamille shook her head but smiled anyway. She couldn't help but to.

* * *

"Good morning Aunti."

"Good morning, Jackie. Did you sleep well?" Aunti asked while cooking in a medium-sized kitchen. Jackie (in his regular clothes) was sitting on a table in a large cafeteria, where everyone else was eating their breakfast. Unlike Delya, Jackie and the heroes were not sleepy for they had gotten used to waking up so early.

"Yes I did. How is Delya? Was Drago sleeping in her room?" Jackie spilled out the questions. He too was worried about what Drago would do to Delya after the demon chi business.

"Delya's fine. She should be getting dressed. I can't say the same for Drago," Aunti lowered her voice.

"What happened?"

"Drago left during the night when we were all asleep." Jackie's face was blank.

"That's bad...right?" he scratched the back of his head.

"Jackie, think about it. Drago works for the bad guy side and Delya takes him to the good guys' place of refuge. What does that mean?" Aunti asked Jackie, as if he were 4 years old. He looked up at the rock ceiling, deep in thought. Finally, his face brightened.

"I understand. Eh, I am not so sure. You and Uncle did say Old Man's Cave was protected by good magic, along with most of The Valley. Drago couldn't have possibly come inside."

"The only way evil can come into this territory is if they are invited. We had to invite Drago for him to tell us what happened. If you think about it," Aunti cupped her chin. "I think Delya is hiding something. Something from us."

"I guess we have to find out later," Jackie said as he felt a warm hand on his shoulder. Finn, Ratso, and Chow took a seat beside him on the right..

"What up, Chan?" said Finn with a wave.

"How ya doin'?" Ratso had a big smile on his face.

"How's life?" Chow asked. Aunti's eyes grew as big as moons.

"Oy! What are you doing here?!" Aunti shrieked as she grabbed a wooden spoon and shoved it into Finn's face.

"It's okay. They are good now. Captain Black and I were able to convince them to become Section 13 agents way before this mission had started," Jackie explained, patting Finn's shoulder. The Enforcers all smiled widely from ear to ear.

"He tells the truth," Ratso beamed.

"We got tired of being enslaved by greedy Englishmen, dragons and their families, crazy old wizards, floating demon heads and teenagers. Especially the teens," Chow rolled his eyes at the last part.

"At first we thought we would never be good, but until Captain Black and Chan changed our minds, here we are," Finn explained. "I hope you can forgive us for what we did in the past, especially if it involves Delya. We only did what Drago told us to do because we were afraid of being fried alive."

The elder African lady put a hand to her chin before talking, carefully eyeing the Enforcers for a long time.

"I suppose you could stay here. You 3 don't look like you could do much damage," Aunti put the wooden spoon away and placed it on a table. Jackie started to laugh at that.

"They barely could do much damage before we changed them," he stopped laughing. A tired Delya dragged herself into the cafeteria and lay her head down into her arms on the table.

"How early did she get up?" Chow poked at Delya's arms.

"8:00 sharp."

"When does she usually wake up?" Ratso asked also.

Aunti shrugged. "It depends on her mood."

"Don't. Touch. Me," Delya grunted without lifting up her head.

"Delya, you should go pick out your own breakfast to eat. You go in the line, grabbed a tray, and dump some food on your plate," Aunti had a sweet tone to her voice, despite the argument that was an hour ago."I know there is some French Toast waiting for you to eat it."

"Ooh! French Toast!" Delya squealed and shot up out of her chair. The girl almost tripped going to the breakfast line.

"Food always makes her alert," Aunti chuckled.

"Same for Jade," Jackie smiled, but it died quickly. He hadn't seen his niece for a month and he had missed her dearly.

"Morning Jackie, Enforcers, Aunti," Captain Black walked up to the table and nodded his head respectively towards his friends. They greeted him back the same way.

"Are they ready for me?" Jackie's eyes slightly widened.

"Yeah. You can head on back there." Jackie nodded his head, stood up, and headed out the lunchroom.

"Well, we gotta be going now," Finn started to say.

"Yeah ya know. People to see, training to do," Chow shrugged.

"We will see you around, Aunti," Ratso pointed to her as he and his friends stood up and followed Jackie out the cafeteria.

"Where are they going?" Aunti pointed them out.

"The Enforcers are going to train and Jackie's going to the interrogation room," the bald man had his hand stuffed in his pockets.

"...Why?"

"Is it okay if we bring Delya to the interrogation room? I've saved a few seats for Jackie, the J-Team, you, and for myself to arrive," the tall man asked but with a quieter tone. The elder raised her eyebrow and looked straight ahead at nothing in particular.

"The J-Team? For what?"

"Since Delya is the only person who has been outside of this camp, we want to ask her of any news of any of our companion's disappearances and other things," Captain Black explained. "Plus, I've heard of these "magical gems" that you have been collecting. Have you gotten one?"

From Aunti's apron pocket, she pulled out the Yellow Beryl. "Found it the other day from a swarm of locusts trying to take it while I saved one of the Titans. I still don't understand why some bugs would pick up such a magical item," The old lady scratched her head in confusion. She put the jewel back into her pocket.

"We wanted to ask Delya yesterday but you had sent her off to bed because of her injuries, so we decided to put it off until today," Captain Black continued the previous conversation.

"Ah, good idea. When she is finished eating I will send her to you. Delya won't be in trouble, right?" Aunti looked up. The captain shook his head.

"May I remind you that these are just questions. Now if she had things to hide, then that's a different story."

"Alright then. She might not have a good attitude though. Seems like she woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning," Aunti turned to looked at Delya. Delya was too busy chowing down her delicious and nutritious breakfast to notice anyone looking at her strangely.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh nothing. I will explain to you later on," Aunti waved off the thought. Clearing her mind of her thoughts, she walked back into the kitchen to clean up.

**A/N: So glad I finally got to add the Enforcers into the story! They're one of my favorite characters! And sorry about taking so long to update. The electricity keeps dying on me where I live.  
**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Colleen, Cody, and Chrissie belong to StellaMagic.**

**Euclid, Jonathan, Wendell, the elder man, and the townspeople belong to Jeff Smith's BONE series.  
**

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"...Are we there yet?" Mas groaned, trudging through the forest.

"For the last time Menos, NO!" Colleen rolled her eyes. "I swear, if you keep asking that question, I'll use water and cover your mouth with ice." Colleen angrily shook her fist at the Guatemalan preteen.

"But I'm _tired_!"

"You can't blame him. Almost all night, we've been walking around and saving citizens. Not that it's bad but I'm starving! You guys didn't' even bother to try and bring food for us to eat," Kid Flash held his growling stomach, which was loud. "Man, I wish I was with Khamille. She was the one who had all the food."

"If you complain about eating so much, why don't you use your speed power and find some?" Colleen asked and put her hands on her hips.

"Tch! You guys expect me to go out _there_? And look for food to eat all by **myself**? I think I'd rather starve than get caught by Madame Rouge, or even worse!" Kid Flash touched his stomach once more. Like Hotspot, having his bump-in with Madame Rouge made him very nervous. Saying her name sent a chill up his spine.

"Why do you kids complain so much? This was your ideas taking us to "Old Man's Cave", if it even exists...," Euclid rolled his dark, sullen eyes.

"Well, it was either leaving you to fend for yourselves from the rat creatures, or try and bring you to safety," Jinx answered the question. She was having a headache, so it wasn't a good day for her.

"We don't see the adults coming up with ideas, do we? No. End of discussion," Cody agreed. A short, old man with a broken cane waddled in, pushing through the large crowd of people. It took him awhile, but finally he had reached the front. He hesitated a second before tapping Jinx's back with his walking stick.

"Excuse me ma'am?"

"What?" Jinx stopped and turned around with an attitude. The old man cringed and backed up before he spoke.

"I really don't care what you're doing. I am just so glad you warned us all about the rat creatures invading. I knew they would do it someday, but I didn't expect they would do it after the treaty they signed," the elder smiled.

"Yeah, I also heard about the treaty with the rat creatures and the Valley people," Jinx nodded her head. The man bowed with his hands in a praying position.

"For saving me, I am eternally grateful. Us townsfolk are the ones who cannot complain."

Jinx's headache lessened some. That was the first words of encouragement and kindness she had ever heard from anyone the whole time they had been traveling.

"Well thanks. At least someone is able to thank us for saving them," Mas made a little raspberry at Euclid.

"But what about the Princess? Isn't she the one who's is supposed to save us?" Jonathan thought aloud.

"Don't be stupid Jonathan! Everyone knows she's dead," Wendell scolded the 17 year old. Jonathan stared at the floor, feeling ashamed for his outburst.

"No, she's alive. I'm pretty sure she's alive," Colleen said.

"And how do you know?"

"Because she came here for a day before leaving us."

"Leaving us for where?" the old man asked with his grey eyes.

"We haven't seen her in the past few days," Jinx shrugged.

"So you're just saying she left us...she just up and left out of The Valley?" Wendell asked, hunching over. The pink-haired witch shrugged once more.

"I don't know..."

"So she is alive?!" Jonathan's eyes widened.

"Of course! She's our friend," Menos nodded his head.

"I knew she was alive all these years, but no! You guys just would not believe me! Who's right now?!" the teenager bragged in Wendell's face. Chrissie put a finger to Jonathan's lips, hushing the boy right away.

"Did you hear that?" Chrissie whispered

"Hear what?" Cody's eyes widened.

"Someone's here in the forest with us," said Chrissie as she took a look around herself. It was deathly quiet, but the sounds of more than one person roamed the forest.

"How are we gonna hide? It's like we're out in the open!" Colleen frantically whispered. Kid Flash dashed off to Colleen's right, only to come back the other way.

"What'd you do?" Chrissie raised her eyebrow.

"I went to go check out something," Kid slicked back his red hair.

"Like what?"

"There is 2. _2 _groups of rat creatures are coming from both sides," the speedster's whimpered slightly in disbelief. "And believe me, they are pretty big compared to our group."

"Oh no!" Mas hugged his twin tightly.

"How did they not see you pass them?" Jinx asked.

"Duh! I'm Kid _Flash_! Emphasis on the "_Flash_"," the speedster said with an obvious tone.

"What are we gonna do? We're trapped!" Cody held his hair.

"But don't worry guys. As I was coming back, I accidentally almost tripped into a big ditch. If we hide there, the rat creatures will never find us," Kid added with a cheerier tone.

"Then there's no time to waste!" Cody called.

"Mas y Menos, sí podemos!" were the Guatemalan twins' battler cry as they grabbed each others hand. They ran north, kicking up a lot of dust. The dust trail stopped when Mas and Menos did.

"Kid Flash is right!" Mas said.

"Every person for themselves!" Jonathan cried a he ran forward and almost dove into the hole.

As soon as the twins fell into the ditch, the crowd didn't waste any time pushing past Colleen, Cody, Jinx, and Chrissie to get to the ditch. After the tragedy the townsfolk had faced just recently with the villains acting like "the good guys", the Honorary Titans were all the people had.

"Ouch! Watch it!" Chrissie yelped as a little boy stepped on her foot. The boy didn't bother to say sorry as he jumped into the ditch, landing on top of some people in the process.

"You can't blame them. We've been suffering out here for a while. Last one in is a rotten egg. No wait, make that road kill for the rat creatures!" Colleen corrected herself as she ran into the ditch also.

"Hey wait up!" the remaining 4 heroes said going into the ditch. As soon as the last Titan jumped in, Mas and Menos covered the ditch with twigs and leaves. They jumped in and landed in Kid Flash's arms ironically.

"Hey!"

"Shh!" Mas covered his mouth as the sound of feet and 2 raspy voices talking hushed everyone.

"...just scouted out this place last night. There is nothing left," one said from the 1st group.

"We had to. We had just gotten word of the son of Shendu and something about his betrayal," another rat creature with a dark green coating from the 2nd group said. "He was assisting another demon to the villains refuge."

"Villains? _They're_ the villains!" Cody hissed.

"Of course we're the good guys, Cody. It's just that they think we're bad and they're good, and it works the other way around," Jinx whispered.

"Have you seen the citizens of Barrelhaven? They were here the day before. Now they have just up and disappeared," another rat creature asked aloud. "I'm pretty sure The Hooded One told us to ambush them."

"So it was The Hooded One's doing. I should've known," Jinx punched her fist into her open palm.

"...escaped. The group that was supposed to bring them to us have failed, so now they are on the run with some others "undercover heroes"," a dark, magenta-coated rat creature answered.

"Yes and it was something else about the Princess being seen near the Eastern Mountains, as her and a few others were crossing and had met Roque Ja," the leader of the 1st group of rat creatures. "Master of the Eastern Border. As he doesn't like our kind, we dislike him."

"Same for us."

"Speaking of which, have you heard?" the leader of the 1st group asked. From a tiny crack in the overlapping twigs and leaves, Colleen noticed the leader's eyes go wide.

"Heard bout what?"

...Did you hear about Kingdok...his timely demise at the start of the Eastern Mountains...some followers," the conversation was being mumbled, for it seemed like the group's voices were being whispered.

"What did he say?" Menos cupped his ear upwards.

"I think they said about Kingdok's demise, but I didn't hear who did it," Chrissie whispered.

"Come, comrade. Let us travel together and go to the Eastern Mountains to..." the leader of the 2nd team said.

"What are they gonna do?" Kid Flash said as Mas jumped out of his arms.

"I couldn't hear anything," Jinx shook her head slowly.

"I say we go follow them!" Wendell hissed as he began to climb out of the ditch, but Cody and Colleen grabbed onto the back of his pants leg.

"Are you crazy?" Cody shook his head.

"If we follow them, we might end up getting caught in the future. Let's just keep going to Old Man's Cave," Colleen reasoned.

"Why? We can counter-attack them and send them crying to The Hooded One! It's foolproof!" Euclid agreed.

"And it would more foolproof if we had gone to Old Man's Cave, gotten some back-up, and then started attacking, doncha think?" Kid said. Wendell looked at the red-and-yellow speedster hard. He slid back down to the ditch and heaved a heavy sigh, his head faced the dirt.

"Does this kid always do this?" Wendell pointed to Kid.

"He's going to do it a lot, so we get used to it," Colleen shrugged with a smile as she began to climb out the ditch.

"I'm telling you guys! It's like a natural gift," Kid beamed. "You're just mad you don't have such a marvelous skill like _mine_."

"Talk about using words being used as your armor," Colleen slapped Kid on the back as he climbed up the ditch behind his friends.

"Well, at least we know one thing that is good news," Chrissie started to say. "Khamille, Jade, Hotspot, and Aisha are somewhere near the Eastern Mountains."

* * *

In Old Man's Cave...

30 minutes later, Delya was finished with her humongous breakfast. Remembering what Captain Black had said to her before, Aunti had told Delya to follow her to a room to chat. Delya (now knowing about what was really about to go down when having this "chat) followed Aunti down a hallway. Not one thing about what had happened the night before even touched her mind.

"Today, you ate a lot more than you usually do, Delya. You're probably won't be able to eat lunch, or even dinner," Aunti chuckled. Delya softly burped.

"Excuse me. I thought I would starve myself if I didn't eat anything. That last time I did eat something was 2...3 days ago."

"Then that explains your big appetite."

"I always have a big appetite," Delya laughed to herself as she felt a tingling itch across her back, which she ignored.

"You're aren't sick, are you?

"I don't feel any different. I guess it's because I'm growing," Delya shrugged. Deep down, she knew what was going on, but Delya wanted to wait until the right moment to mention so, which she hoped would come up soon. "But for some reason, it feels really cold in Old Man's Cave, like there's a strong breeze."

"How is there a breeze in a sealed cave?" This made Aunti's suspicion level go up.

"I don't know." Delya grumbled as she felt a stronger itch across the top of her bosom. She made a quick scratch before moving on.

"Has anything happened outside of this camp that we all should know about?"

"You sound like I'm going to be in trouble for something," Delya gave Aunti a look of suspicion.

"What? Trouble? Of course you're not in trouble! I was just asking if there was something you would like to tell me."

Delya gulped and slowly shrugged, keeping her eyes on the ground. "I guess so..."

Aunti stopped walking and turned to her left, facing a that was a foot taller than Delya. From her pocket, Aunti pulled out a small slip of paper with little numbers written on it. The elder looked at the writing for a quick second before punching the numbers into a number-plate that was stuck what was supposed to be the doorknob of the door.

"What's that?" Delya peeked over Aunti's shoulder.

"You will see."

To Delya's surprise, the door slid open on the right side. Inside were 7 chairs with 5 people sitting in them and 2 chairs empty: one was sitting alone on the far side of an oval table and the other was sitting to the right of Jackie and to the left of El Toro. Jackie, Captain Black, Raven, and 2 others Delya knew from somewhere (but couldn't put her finger on it) were sitting quietly. Aunti went to take her seat.

"Um, hello?" Delya sheepishly said as she scratched her index finger.

_I'm getting really itchy here, and it's annoying_, the demon thought as she scratched her wrist and arm.

"Bienvenido," said a man with a red and yellow mask with a bull decorated on it. He had a dark blue suit on with a red tie.

"Hello yourself, sugar," said a woman's voice 2 seats of the bull-masked man's right. She was dark hair that was put to her left. She had a lady's suit on, similar in look to the man with the bull mask. She pointed to the lone chair in front of Delya. "Why don't you have a seat right there?"

The female demon sat down slowly, having confusion written all over her face. Her eyes were light grey and so were the colored stripes in her hair.

"Haven't I seen you two somewhere before?"

"Of course! We were fighting Drago and his demon minions at the baseball stadium," El Toro explained. "My name is El Toro Fuerte, and this is Viper."

"Delya, we brought you here to ask you a some things that has been going on outside of this camp," Captain Black said.

"I'm not in trouble, right?" Aunti rubbed the bridged of her nose and sighed in an annoyed way.

"For the thousandth time, you aren't in trouble!" she scolded the demon. "What happened after I left you and the group in the forest that night Kingdok ambushed you?"

"There's a lot that went on. First, we traveled to Barrelhaven and went in disguise. The kids had found the Red Ruby and we left, only to be stopped by a group of bad guys. I saved them by using my necklace and it transported them to I-don't-know-where. So the bad guys took me in and I got to see T.H.O. I escaped and Drago came with me and he took me here. The end," the story was finished. Delya took a deep breath in and out, for she was talking too fast.

"Señor Drago is back?" El Toro's eye's flew open.

"Jade's gone?!" Jackie shrieked.

"You saw The Hooded One?" Aunti shot up out of her seat.

"You found the Red Ruby and the Green Emerald?!" Uncle adjusted his glasses in surprise.

"I didn't even hear what she said," Raven said, her voice below all the commotion.

"Hold on, hold on! One at a time!" Delya jumped and scratched her eyebrow without really knowing.

"First off, I didn't understand anything because you were talking too fast. How about retelling the story in much more detail and as _slowly_ as you can?" Raven asked in a somewhat polite way.

"Aww...,"

"Just retell the story once more and we won't ask anymore from there," El Toro reasoned. In 8 minutes Delya finished her story once more. The room was silent. No one had dared interrupt Delya as she told her adventurous, yet dangerous story. The things she left out was The Hooded One's identity and her and Drago's secret but short romance.

"Any questions?" she asked wearily.

"I have never heard of "Blood Moon" before," Uncle scratched his head curiously.

"Jade is lost somewhere in The Valley? All by herself?" Jackie squeaked. He was looking panicky.

"Yeah...you could say that," Delya shrugged.

"Now that we know The Hooded One's plans, we can plan what to do when we attack T.H.O.," Capt. Black put a hand to his chin.

"I almost forgot to ask you: when you reached The Hooded One's place of hiding, who did you see that was captured?" Uncle asked. Delya gulped and took in a deep breath, trying hard to forget the memory.

"The people were frozen and kept like that as statues. The Hooded One had given them a big room. Cyborg was there, Bobby, Timmy, Teether, Melvin, Aqualad, Bumblebee, Beast Boy, Red Star, and Thunder. Hak Foo and Tohru were there too. Tohru had such a sacred look on his face."

"So we're starting this "freeze" thing again, aren't we?" Raven hardened her stare.

"Maybe splitting up was a bad idea after all," Jackie shook his head shamefully.

"I should have stayed with you when I had the chance," Aunti's eyes lowered to the ground.

"Yeah..."

"What are we waiting for?! If we just sit here, the night of Blood Moon will approach faster. Raven, Aunti, Jackie come! We must take Delya to the medical unit to do _research_!" Uncle ordered as he got up and left for the door. Raven and Aunti were right behind him but Jackie didn't budge.

"I thought you were going to take good care of Jade. That is why I put her in a group of smart and strong, where she would be protected," Jackie glared at Delya. "I trusted you."

"Would you rather have her taken and kept as a frozen trophy or lost somewhere?" Delya crossed her arms in front of her chest. Her hair flashed a red, making Jackie back off a little.

"You too," Jackie pointed an accusing finger at Aunti.

"Hey! You should be thanking me because if it wasn't for me, you would be a frozen trophy alongside Tohru," Aunti spat out. Uncle kicked at the ground sadly, thinking of his friend.

"And if Jade is added to be another collection of The Hooded One's trophies, I blame you," Jackie warned. He gave one last frown at Delya before shooting up out of his chair and leaving the room in a hurry. Delya noticed his fist were tightly clenched.

"We'll go check up with Jackie," said Viper as she and El Toro got up and followed Jackie out the door.

"What is Jackie's problem?" Aunti crossed her arms in front of her small chest.

"It's okay. He just needs to cool off from a few minutes. While he cools off, Raven, Aunti, and I will do _research_!" Uncle yelled his favorite word.

"Whatever," Raven got up out of her chair and levitated herself after Uncle. The old wizard grabbed Delya up out of her chair and led her out the interrogation room.

"What are you doing?"

"You are going to be doing some research too, while being the guinea pig as we try antidote to cure you," Uncle answered. Delya scratched her forehead.

"Ugh! What's with the itching! I've been itching every since I've gotten out of the cafeteria!" Delya whined, scratching her eyelids and her back. "I feel like little bugs are eating my skin!"

"AAAAUUUGGGHHH!" Aunti dropped everything that she was holding onto the floor.

"Ow, my ear," Raven held her ear in annoyance.

"What's wrong?" Uncle asked quickly.

"She hates bugs," Delya snickered. Aunti was in too much shock to retort to Delya's claim. The only thing Aunti could do was point to Delya. The female demon had red spots all over her body.

"Whoa!"

"Aiyah!"

"What! What's wrong with me?" Delya said. "Where's a mirror? I need a mirror!"

"No! No! Don't look in the mirror!" Uncle waved his hands frantically. Delya didn't listen, because there was a full body mirror to her left when she turned around.

"AAAAAHHHH!" Delya pointed to her screen. She began to start itching on her abdomen, her arms, and her face.

"It's so itchy!" Delya cried.

"I told you not to look in the mirror!" Uncle face-palmed.

"Aunti! I'm super duper itchy! I feel like my body is falling apart!" Delya said, scratching as if there was no tomorrow.

"Don't take this lightly! The poisoning of a demon is very dangerous. The Horse Talisman is forged of good magic, thus it will only hurt Delya even more. That is exactly why we must do _research_," Uncle said, walking into a medical unit. Aunti finally recovered from her shock and gained a serious face, grabbing Delya by her hair.

"You are going to explain yourself about this...thing before you get into more trouble than you are already in," Aunti scolded Delya. Her hair and her eyes turned blue.

_I am in so much trouble..._


End file.
